Gonocarpus cordiger Nees
Bearing a crown of hearts, Gonocarpus cordiger will surely steal yours! Gonocarpus cordiger is a small perennial herb in the Haloragaceae family, growing to 30–45 cm tall, with linear to terete, alternating leaves. While you may need to get down on the ground to appreciate this species, once you do, you will notice its slender stems that give rise to a many-flowered inflorescence with ornate, pendulous flowers and ribbed fruit, and which provide the genus its name, ‘gonos = angled, carpus = fruited’. Each flower segment comes in multiples of four with a whorl of distinctive, persistent heart-shaped sepals that crown the flowers and fruit, these giving this species its name; ‘cordiger’, from Latin meaning ‘heart bearing’.
Gonocarpus includes 41 species, with many of them found in and endemic to the southwest. Gonocarpus cordiger is one of these southwest endemic species, where it is particularly fond of granite outcrops, winter wet areas and forests. It can be found throughout the Avon Wheatbelt, Geraldton Sandplains, Jarrah Forest, and the Swan Coastal Plain.
Photo: R. Craig