| i've recently made a 3000km road trip to the NSW north coast where my children live. along the way i stopped in several places to look for violets in the bush. i found some colonies of viola betonicifolia and also of the viola family cousin, hybanthus stellarioides. it's a small shrub of the understory and has seed capsules very like a violet. the flower is violet-like also but has much reduced petals except the lower one. i read that it is a succesful pot plant which can be grown from cuttings. the plants i found were growing on a fire access track at a waste recycling area near port macquarie, hardly pristine bush, so i collected some cuttings to try. |
Image link: violet cousins...hybanthus (44 k)
