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Billardiera heterophylla
Also called Australian Blue Bell, Australian Blue Bell Creeper, Western Australian Bluebell Creeper
Bluebell creeper is a twining, scrambling climber from southwest Western Australia, grown for its hanging bell-shaped blue flowers and glossy leaves. It needs support and a sunny spot, and it can spread aggressively in cooler parts of Australia.
Billardiera heterophylla (formerly Sollya heterophylla) is a species of flowering plant in the family Pittosporaceae, known by the common name bluebell creeper. It is native to Western Australia, but is grown as an ornamental plant in appropriate climates worldwide. It can sometimes be found growing in the wild as an introduced species or garden escapee, for example in other Australian states, in California, where it is popular in landscaping, and in Portugal, including Tapada de Monserrate, Sintra, and Madeira Island. It is sometimes considered a weed.
B. heteropylla is a popular, widely cultivated garden plant, and has been sold within Australia and internationally for at least 100 years, with seeds being available in Jamaica as early as 1887.
In the temperate regions of Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania it has become a serious environmental weed. It produces an abundance of seed, which readily germinates after fire or disturbance, and is also thought to be spread by native animals eating the seed, which not only takes the plant to new sites, but allows the seed to germinate more readily, having been ingested.
Billardiera heterophylla is native to the Avon and Eyre districts of southwest Western Australia, where it occurs in open eucalypt forest and woodland and as well as coastal heathland and near salt lakes inland. It is adept at colonising disturbed sites. Its cultivation and propensity to spread have resulted in range increase and difficulties in determining original distribution.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Billardiera heterophylla by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
