Trochocarpa clarkei, commonly known as lilac berry,[1] is a species of flowering plant in the family Ericaceae. It is a dense, often low-lying shrub with oblong leaves and bisexual flowers arrange in dense flowering spikes, usually on old wood, with maroon and green petals joined at the base to from an urn-shaped to bell-shaped tube with dense tufts of hairs in the throat. The fruit is a bluish-purple drupe.
Tracocarpa clarkei is a dense, often low-lying shrub that grows to a height of up to about and sometimes forms roots at the nodes. The leaves are oblong to elliptic, long wide and glabrous, the lower surface a paler shade of green with 3 to 7 more or less parallel veins. The flowers are bisexual and borne in dense spikes of 5 to 11, usually on old wood, with a bract wide and 2 bracteoles long under the sepals. The sepals are egg-shaped, long and the petals are joined at the base to form an urn-shaped to bell-shaped tube long. The petal tube is maroon, green at the base, long with lobes long. The anthers protrude beyond the end of the petal tube. The fruit is a flattened spherical, bluish-purple drupe about long.[2] [3]
This species was first formally described in 1855 by Ferdinand von Mueller who gave it the name Decaspora clarkei in his paper Definitions of rare or hitherto undescribed Australian plants,[4] from specimens collected in "shady ravines at Mount Wellington, half buried in decaying leaves".[5] In 1867, von Muller transferred the species to Trochocarpa as T. clarkei in his Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae.[6] [7] The specific epithet (clarkei) honours Andrew Clarke, "President of the Philosophical Society".
Lilac berry is endemic to alpine and sub-alpine areas of Victoria in Australia, usually growing near rocks, or in sheltered areas under snow gums (Eucalyptus pauciflora).[3]
The fruits of lilac berry appear in autumn, about in diameter and are eaten by small mammals and birds.[2] [3]