Tar Vine

Alice Springs Flora •

Alice Springs FloraAlice Springs Flora Index Acacia ligulata Annual Yellowtop Bougainvillea Apple Bush Burdekin Plum Carob Tree (Ceratonia siliqa) Cattle Bush Desert Cotton (Aerva javanica) Desert Oak Eremophila Wildberry Feijoa sellowiana Flannel Cudweed Fork-leaf Corkwood Ghost Gum Golden Everlasting Kurrajong Lemon-flowered Gum MacDonnell’s Desert Fuchsia Native Bluebell Native Tomato Needlewood Olive Tree Perennial Yellow Top Rat’s Tail River Red Gum Inland River Red Gum Rosy Dock Round-leaved Mallee Scurvy Grass Silky Eremophila Stemodia viscosa Striped Mintbush Sturt’s Desert Pea Sturt’s Desert Rose Tangled Leschenaultia Tar Vine Weeping Bottlebrush White Cedar Yellow Billybutton Yellow-keeled Swainsona Yellow Oleander

A native groundcover plant, Tar Vine (Boerhavia coccinea) is commonly found in gardens, road verges and disturbed lands around Alice Springs. Although it is becoming less common here in Alice Springs and the wider Central Australia, especially where Buffel grass is out competing the Tar Vine.

A common weed found throughout mainland Australia, the Tar Vine (Boerhavia coccinea), is sometimes confused with Boerhavia diffusa. From the genus Boerhavia, there are several species across Central Australia and the Northern Territory, B. coccinea being the most common.

Tar Vine is a prostrate vine-like perennial, with small white, pink to lilac flowers, leaves are hairy and triangular in shape and the vine can trail for up to 3 metres. The whole plant is very sticky, although in some species it is the twining stems of the plant and the fruit that are very sticky.

Aboriginal people found a number of uses for Tar Vine. When food is scarce, the roots can be eaten, raw or lightly roasted, although the skin is bitter and roasting enable the removal of the bitter skin. The tar vine is fibrous and bland. Pitjantjatjara children were known to put the sticky vines around small waterholes to trap small birds.

Whilst some species of the genus Boerhavia are consumed by people, it should be noted that B. coccinea should not be harvested for human consumption.¹

After good rain, the appearance of the sticky tar-vine Ayepe (Boerhavia coccinea), heralds the appearance of a special insect, a green caterpillar (the larvae of a large hawkmoth), called Yeperenye (to the Western Arrernte). These caterpillars were often collected and eaten.

Today, Arrernte protocols do not allow caterpillars to be eaten due to their sacredness, scarcity and the easy availability of other food.

Common name
In Alice Springs and Central Australia we call this the Tar Vine. Other names include Tarvine, Tah Vine, Common Spiderling.

Check out the following on the Tar Vine and Yepereny caterpillar and Hawkmoth:

• Tar Vine
• Tar Vine at Ellery Creek Big Hole
• Australian Striped Hawk Moth
• Instar of the Hyles livornicoides
• Yeperenye / Yipirinya

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• Scientific classification
• Kingdom: Plantae
• Clade: Tracheophytes
• Clade: Angiosperms
• Clade: Eudicots
• Order: Caryophyllales
• Family: Nyctaginaceae
• Genus: Boerhavia
• Species: Boerhavia coccinea

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Alice Springs FloraAlice Springs Flora Index Acacia ligulata Annual Yellowtop Bougainvillea Apple Bush Burdekin Plum Carob Tree (Ceratonia siliqa) Cattle Bush Desert Cotton (Aerva javanica) Desert Oak Eremophila Wildberry Feijoa sellowiana Flannel Cudweed Fork-leaf Corkwood Ghost Gum Golden Everlasting Kurrajong Lemon-flowered Gum MacDonnell’s Desert Fuchsia Native Bluebell Native Tomato Needlewood Olive Tree Perennial Yellow Top Rat’s Tail River Red Gum Inland River Red Gum Rosy Dock Round-leaved Mallee Scurvy Grass Silky Eremophila Stemodia viscosa Striped Mintbush Sturt’s Desert Pea Sturt’s Desert Rose Tangled Leschenaultia Tar Vine Weeping Bottlebrush White Cedar Yellow Billybutton Yellow-keeled Swainsona Yellow Oleander

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