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 polyclada
Also called Lignum Fuchsia, Twiggy Emu Bush
Eremophila polyclada is a dense, spreading Australian shrub grown for its profuse white to pale lilac flowers in summer. It is very drought tolerant and needs little water once established.
Eremophila polyclada, commonly known as twiggy emu-bush, flowering lignum, lignum fuchsia and desert lignum is a plant in the figwort family Scrophulariaceae and is endemic to Australia. It is a dense, spreading shrub with narrow leaves and white to pale lilac-coloured, purple-spotted flowers. It occurs in all mainland states except Western Australia.
Twiggy emu-bush is an ornamental shrub which is well known in horticulture, and some specimens have been grown for more than 35 years. It flowers profusely in summer, bearing masses of white flowers when most other shrubs are dormant and is a useful screening plant, with its dense, tangled branches. Propagation is easiest from cuttings which strike within a few weeks in warm weather and its arching branches sometimes develop roots when they touch the ground. A very drought tolerant shrub, it only requires watering once or twice during a long drought and a deep watering early in summer will sometimes stimulate a mass flowering. It is also tolerant of frost and can be pruned, preferably in early autumn. A hybrid with E. divaricata called Eremophila 'summertime blue' is popular in American gardens.
Eremophila polyclada is widespread in New South Wales to the west of Lightning Ridge and in southern Queensland. It is also found in a few places along the Murray River in Victoria and South Australia. There is one record from Tarlton Downs in the Northern Territory. It grows in sandy to clay loam soils often on floodplains and other low-lying areas.
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 polyclada 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.
