07 Dec Black eyed Susan
Thunbergia alata
Colour variation of flowers is encountered with plants grown from seedlings, including yellow or white, often lacking the dark central blotch. Very fast and erratic twiner.
Family: Acanthaceae
Origin: Tropical Africa
Habit: A delicate herbaceous and persistent twining or scrambling vine that will readily re-root from fragments and nodes.
Leaves: Thin-textured, heart-shaped or triangular.
Flowers: Bright orange to yellow some times white with a distinct black centre on a single stalk. Base of flower enclosed in pair of green sepals. Summer-Autumn.
Fruit: The papery sepals remain to cover the beaked capsule containing few seeds.
Roots: Tap and fibrous, will actively seek and block water/septic pipes.
Dispersal: Vegetation and seed will spread by water, humans, contaminated soil (earthmoving equipment, car tyres etc) and garden refuse dumping.
Control: Hand Dig, Foliar spray.
