Mallee Design

This is one of those wonderful plants where the fruits are more decorative and showy than the flower, Eustrephus latifolius produces deep golden berries that are edible but not particularly palatable, perhaps the fleshy roots are more tasty, but I haven’t tried then also though I’m told you can eat them.

Eustrephus latifolius flowers in spring with small white slightly hairy petals, the fruits develop over the Summer months and then burst open to reveal large black seeds which remain on the plant for several months. The deep yellow and black make a wonderful combination.

Wombat Berry is a very gentle climber or twining plants, it grows naturally in the bush as an understory alson along the east coast of Australia.

It makes a good climber on a trellis or grown as a screen, because it is not aggressive or particularly vigorous it won’t smother other plants or destroy growing structures.

In the image above you can see it twining through some chicken wire that is wrapped around a Brachychiton in a friends garden. I have also grown it as an indoor plant, when it is young it has an almost miniature ornamental bamboo-like appearance and survived in my bathroom on a window sill for several years. Tough plant 😉

So although I am not a big fan of the fruit to eat I am an admirer of this gentle native, in the image above you can see the pinkish colour of the flower buds on the same plant that is already setting fruit. It is well worth a try as an ornamental plant in a native garden.