Appearance
It is a climbing shrub with vine-like branches that twine around other plants for support. The leaves are a glossy green on the upper surface, and 10–60 millimetres long, 2–22 millimetres wide. The inflorescence is a single hanging flower or a hanging group of up to five flowers. The flower has five petals up to 1 cm long which may be white to deep blue or pinkish in color. The fruit is a berry up to 3 cm long with pulpy flesh and many seeds. The purplish-green, cylindrical, sausage-shaped fruits in length) are initially densely hairy, but become smooth as they ripen.
Distribution
''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.
Status
This plant is a widely cultivated, popular garden plant, and has been available within Australia and internationally for at least 100 years.Within Australia, 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 thought also to spread by native animals eating the seed, which not only takes the plant to new sites, but the seed germinates more readily after ingestion.
This plant gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit in 2013.
Habitat
It is adept at colonising disturbed sites. Its cultivation and propensity to spread have resulted in range increase and difficulties in determining original distribution.References:
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