Trichodesma zeylanicum is an annual or perennial, herb or shrub to 2 m high. Its pendulous flowers of blue or white are displayed from March to December and make a striking contrast against the red earth of outback regions. It is a member of the Boraginaceae family and enjoys a variety of soils including granite, sandstone, coastal sand dunes, rocky hills, creek beds, flats and floodplains. Its distribution includes most of Western Australia except the cooler regions in the south.
The generic name comes from the Latin tricho hairy and desma a bond or cable, in this instance meaning that the anthers have long hairs that bind them into a spirally-twisted 'beak'. The plant was originally named Borago zeylanica by N.L. Burman in his Flora Indica (1768); the species epithet zeylanicum being Late Latin for Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), from whence the plant was first described.
The Australian genus was subsequently recognised by Robert Brown in his Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van-Diemen (1810) and this taxon transferred to it, as Trichodesma zeylanicum. The common name of Camel Bush may relate to the fact that the plant is covered in stiff irritant hairs, similar to the short, stiff hairs of a camel.
Photo: K.C. Richardson
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