Billardiera mutabilis
{{short description|Species of plant}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2019}}
{{Speciesbox
|name = Climbing apple berry
|genus = Billardiera
|species = mutabilis
|image = Billardiera mutabilis.jpg
|image_caption = In Bittern, Victoria
|authority = Salisb.{{cite web |title=Billardiera mutabilis |url=https://biodiversity.org.au/nsl/services/apc-format/display/55460|website=Australian Plant Census|accessdate=14 June 2023}}
|range_map = Billardiera mutabilis Dist Map14.png
|range_map_caption = Occurrence data from Australasian Virtual Herbarium
}}
Billardiera mutabilis, commonly known as climbing apple berry, apple berry, snot berry, apple dumplings or changeable-flowered billardiera,{{cite web |last1=Conn |first1=Barry J. |title=Billardiera mutabilis |url=https://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Billardiera~mutabilis |publisher=Royal Botanic Garden Sydney |access-date=14 June 2023}} is a species of flowering plant in the family Pittosporaceae and is endemic to south-eastern Australia. It is a slender climber or twiner with narrowly elliptic leaves and bell-shaped, greenish-yellow flowers that turn bluish as they age.
Description
Billardiera mutabilis is a slender climber or twiner with silky-hairy new stems. Its adult leaves are mostly narrowly elliptic, {{cvt|18–80|mm}} long and {{cvt|3–18|mm}} wide on a petiole {{cvt|2–4|mm}} long. The flowers are usually arranged singly in upper leaf axils or on the ends of branches, on a slender, pendent peduncle {{cvt|12–45|mm}} long. The sepals are lance-shaped, {{cvt|4–9|mm}} long. The petals are {{cvt|12–23|mm}} long, greenish-yellow, tinged with navy blue as they age, and joined at the base to form a bell-shaped tube, the lobes spreading but not curved backwards. Flowering mainly occurs from September to January and the mature fruit is a glabrous green berry {{cvt|10–20|mm}} long, containing many seeds.{{cite web |title=Billardiera mutabilis |url=https://profiles.ala.org.au/opus/foa/profile/Billardiera%20mutabilis |publisher=Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment: Canberra |access-date=14 June 2023}}{{cite web |last1=Walsh |first1=Neville G. |last2=Albrecht |first2=David E. |title=Billardiera mutabilis |url=https://vicflora.rbg.vic.gov.au/flora/taxon/169cd940-d54d-4f2c-9160-f723f9551d5c |publisher=Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria |access-date=14 June 2023}}
This species is similar to B. scandens, except that B. scandens has hairy fruit.
Taxonomy
Billardiera mutabilis was first formally described in 1806 by Richard Anthony Salisbury in Paradisus Londinensis from a specimen collected by William Paterson.{{cite web|title=Billardiera mutabilis|url= https://id.biodiversity.org.au/instance/apni/457632|publisher=APNI|accessdate=14 June 2023}}{{cite book |last1=Salisbury |first1=Richard A. |title=Paradisus Londinensis |date=1806 |publisher=William Hooker |location=London |page=48 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/113616#page/110/mode/1up |access-date=14 June 2023}} The specific epithet (mutbilis) means "changeable".{{cite book |author=William T. Stearn |title=Botanical Latin. History, grammar, syntax, terminology and vocabulary |date=1992 |publisher=Timber Press |location=Portland, Oregon |edition=4th|page=450}}
Distribution and habitat
Climbing apple berry grows in heathland, woodland and forest on the coast and tablelands of New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, south from about Kiama, through southern Victoria to the coasts of Tasmania.{{cite web |last1=Jordan |first1=Greg |title=Billardiera mutabilis |url=https://www.utas.edu.au/dicotkey/dicotkey/Pittosp/sBillardiera_scandens.htm |publisher=University of Tasmania |access-date=14 June 2023}}