The open plant encyclopedia
Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.
The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.
Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.
Eremophila divaricata
Spreading emu bush is a tough, hardy, spreading shrub native to inland south-eastern Australia, with mauve to lilac tubular flowers. It is easy to grow in a sunny spot in well-drained or heavy clay soil and tolerates drought, flooding and hard frost.
Eremophila divaricata, also known as spreading emu bush, is a flowering plant in the figwort family, Scrophulariaceae and is endemic to Australia. It is a shrub with stiff, spreading, tangled branches which are often spiny on their ends, erect leaves and mauve to lilac-coloured flowers.
As suggested by its common name, spreading emu bush has arching branches which often extend to ground level. It is a tough, hardy plant, resistant to disease although not to predation by kangaroos, however the shrub recovers from even the harshest pruning. It is easy to propagate from cuttings and can be grown in a range of soils, including heavy clay. Its natural habitat suggests it can handle long dry spells followed by occasional flooding and it can survive the most severe frosts.
E. divaricata subsp. divaricata occurs on the floodplains of the Murray, Paroo, Darling and lower Murrumbidgee rivers in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia, often forming dense thickets in heavy clay soils in river red gum and black box communities. Subspecies callewatta is only known from one location near Bourke.
Emu Bush · Diocirea acutifolia · Diocirea microphylla · Diocirea ternata · Diocirea violacea · Emu Bush · Eremophila abietina · Eremophila accrescens · Eremophila acrida · Eremophila adenotricha · Eremophila alatisepala · Narrow Leaved Emu Bush
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Eremophila divaricata 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.
