One of the things I adore about Illawarra local native plants is how adaptable many of them are. Something pops up on your verge, or in a boggy spot in the back lawn; oh no, another weed to manage, you think; but then it turns out to be a local that’s found its own way there. And so you can stop worrying about it, knowing that even if it’s not quite what you had in mind when you planned your garden, it will provide habitat for local fauna.
A plant that does this brilliantly is the Wombat Berry (Eustrephus latifolius). It pops up in garden beds, and from there creates its own self-supporting structure of tough, wiry stems and finer twining tendrils that find and ascend the nearest tree trunk, trellis or other upright item in search of a bit of sunlight. You can think of this as ‘a bit of an eyesore,’ or alternatively as a ‘lizard ladder’ or a resting place for tired insects.
Wombat Berry has pretty white-purple flowers, and orange fruit that can appear in large numbers and make established plants look quite decorative. While the fruit are edible, they’re probably better left to the wombats (which, incidentally, are much more likely to enjoy eating the fleshy, crunchy roots). And bowerbirds eat the young growing stems, so it definitely makes a good habitat plant.
Up close the flowers are absolutely gorgeous, with a dainty fringe along their three white petals and a tinge of purple or mauve on the three sepals, as well as on the unopened flower buds.
Finally, it must be said that there’s a Wombat Berry lookalike around, the Scrambling Lily (Geitonoplesium cymosum), also a local native, which has finer foliage, and black rather than orange fruit. Gardens left to do their own thing will often host both species.
