Eremophila fallax facts for kids

Eremophila fallax is a beautiful flowering plant that belongs to the figwort family. It grows only in Australia, which means it's an endemic plant there. This plant is a bushy shrub with lots of leaves. Its leaves have a cool hooked tip, and its flowers are usually blue or violet. You can find it growing in South Australia and Western Australia. When it's not flowering, it looks a lot like another plant called Eremophila deserti. But E. deserti has five stamens (the parts that make pollen), and its fruits are shaped differently.

What it Looks Like

Eremophila fallax is a shrub that stands upright and has many leaves. It usually grows to be about 1 to 2 meters (3 to 7 feet) tall. Its leaves are thick and smooth, without any hairs. They are mostly 30 to 60 millimeters (1 to 2 inches) long and 3 to 6 millimeters (0.1 to 0.2 inches) wide. The leaves are narrow and shaped like a spear, with a rough feel and a pointed, hooked tip.

The flowers grow one by one on a sticky stalk that is 7 to 13.5 millimeters (0.3 to 0.5 inches) long. Each flower has five green sepals, which are like small leaves that protect the bud. These sepals are shaped like a spear or an egg, often with a pointy end, and are 2 to 8 millimeters (0.08 to 0.3 inches) long. They often feel lumpy and have jagged edges.

The petals of the flower are 7 to 14 millimeters (0.3 to 0.6 inches) long. They are joined together at the bottom to form a tube. The petals are usually cream-colored, but sometimes they have reddish-purple stains on top of the tube. The outside of the petal tube is smooth but can be lumpy. The inside edges of some petal parts have long hairs. The four stamens, which produce pollen, are completely hidden inside the petal tube.

Eremophila fallax flowers from September to October. After flowering, it produces fruits that are narrow and oval-shaped, almost like a sphere. These fruits have a papery covering and are 7 to 8.5 millimeters (0.3 inches) long.

Plant Name and History

This plant was officially described for the first time in 2007 by a scientist named Robert Chinnock. He published his description in a book called Eremophila and Allied Genera: A Monograph of the Plant Family Myoporaceae. The very first plant specimen used for this description, called the type specimen, was collected by Chinnock in 1979. He found it about 43 kilometers (27 miles) west of Neale Junction.

The second part of the plant's scientific name, fallax, comes from a Latin word. It means "deceitful" or "false." This name was chosen because Eremophila fallax looks very similar to another plant, Eremophila deserti.

Where it Grows

Eremophila fallax grows in Eucalyptus woodlands. You can find it from the Serpentine Lake Road in Western Australia, stretching south to the Trans-Australian Railway. It also grows east into areas near the Flinders Ranges in South Australia.

How it's Used in Gardens

Even though the flowers of Eremophila fallax are quite small, their light color stands out against the plant's dark green leaves. This makes it a good choice for planting between shrubs that have lighter-colored leaves in a garden.

You can grow new Eremophila fallax plants from cuttings (small pieces of the plant) or by grafting them onto Myoporum plants. It can grow well in most types of soil, even heavy clay. This plant is also very good at handling dry conditions and can survive most frosts, except for the very severe ones.