Duranta

Duranta erecta

Duranta

DESCRIPTION

Upright shrub 4-6m tall with arching branches and some paired spines along stems. Opposite oval to ovate leaves 15- 90mm long by 12-60mm wide with pointed or rounded tips, margins occasionally toothed and petioles to 10mm long.

FLOWERS AND FRUIT

Blue or pale purple (sometimes white) five-lobed flowers 9-18mm long in elongated terminal and axillary racemes 5-30cm long during summer and autumn. Flowers have five green sepals 3-7mm long (fused at base), four stamens. Berries are glossy, rounded and orange or yellow, 5-14mm wide borne in large clusters.

HABITAT AND RANGE

Disturbed sites, roadsides, open woodland and rainforest margins near urban centres across Australia but predominantly from northern New South Wales to the wet tropics in far north Queensland.