#comesperma

A showy wildflower from the Milkwort family (Polygalaceae), endemic to coastal SW WA, along with 18 others of the 24 in the genus. 

It prefers to grow in non-chalky sandy soil, near seepage zones. They start flowering with spring rains, and soon produce the hairy seeds they got their genus from, but will respond to summer or autumn rain by producing more flowers above the ones that have already gone to seed. 

In sheltered areas it grows to about 150cm tall. 

Virgatum is from the Latin virgatus, meaning twiggy or striped, and used in botantical descriptions for anything long, slender, stiff, or streaked.

Photos by Bob Goodale.

First formally described in 1806 by Jacques Labillardière.

The specific epithet volubile which means "twining" which it certainly does. On rare occasion you might find it as a small shrubl with smooth, angled stems, but much more often it's a twining creeper up to 3m long.

Widespread in the more coastal regions from Perth all the way south and around to Brisbane. It grows in many kinds of soil.

A twining shrub, up to 8m tall, found in WA and NSW. The small, fragrant flowers can be pink or purple. It grows in a variety of habitats and soils over laterite, limestone & granite.

A small, erect spindly shrub, growing in deep sand and gravelly soil across the semi arid parts of southern Australia, but apparently extinct in New South Wales. Land clearing and grazing by livestock and rabbits are probably to blame.