Lomandra hermaphrodita

Meaning of name:

Lomandra is from the Greek words loma, meaning the border of a robe, and andros, meaning man. It refers to the border of the anthers in some species. Hermaphrodita is from the Latin word hermaphroditus, meaning having the characteristics of both sexes. Botanically it means having the male and female organs in the same flower.

Distribution:

Occurs in western parts of the south west of Western Australia.

Description:

A tufted plant to 45 centimetres tall. The purple and yellow flowers are borne from April to June.

Notes:

Despite having the specific name of hermaphrodita, Lomandra have separate male and female plants.

This is the host plant for the rare Graceful Sun-moth.

References:

Western Australian Plant Names and their Meanings, a Glossary. FA Sharr. 1996.

Flora of the Perth Region. NG Marchant, JR Wheeler, BL Rye, EM Bennett, NS Lander, TD Macfarlane. 1987.

Atlas of Living Australia https://bie.ala.org.au/species/https://id.biodiversity.org.au/node/apni/2908142

Florabase https://florabase.dbca.wa.gov.au/browse/profile/1228

Why are there no photographs available for this plant?

The main reason why some plants don’t have photographs is because we haven’t found the plant yet. We have had a few flora surveys conducted and they have indicated that this plant can be found in the bush. The problem is that we just don’t know where in the bush to find it. And if we can’t find it, we can’t photograph it.

Another problem we have is that, while we have a name for the plant, we don’t know what it actually looks like. It’s very difficult to find a plant if you’re not sure what you’re looking for.

But rest assured that as soon as we have photographs for this plant we’ll put them on the website.