Native Lassiandra is a rounded shrub that grows to two metres high with beautiful lilac flowers to five cm across, flowering from Spring to Autumn. It has attractive rough textured leaves, and purple stems, making it an ideal feature plant that can be pruned if required.
A plant of the Wallum Woodlands and Wet Eucalyptus Forests, Native Lassiandra will grows in filtered sun or full sun and does better in moist soil. In our beachside location, this plant will definitely require watering in dry periods.
Even when not in flower, the compact shape , attractive leaves and purple stems make this plant a worthy garden feature plant
Native Lassiandra attracts the Miskin’s Jewell Butterfly.
Hint: To minimise watering requirements it’s a good idea to group thirsty plants together in one spot, ideally in a low lying area that captures runoff. Banskia Robur is a good choice to plant with Native Lassiandra.
Did you know? There is a white flowering form of the Native Lassiandra as well as a lilac one. The exotic Lasiandra has a deep purple flower.
The purple pulp of the fruit eaten by Aborigines stains the mouth, hence the other common name for Melastoma malabathricum, Blue Tongue.
This article is part of our Gardening with natives series.
Thank you. I have always understood Lassiandra to be hardy and drought tolerant. Each year mine loose their leaves in spring and early summer. Now I realise that Bowen is pretty tough at that time and I need to up the watering. We had no rain fron 7 Aug to 7 Dec so all they were getting was the weekly drip watering. All the best. Mykl
I’m glad you found the information on our website useful. Good luck with your Melastoma. They are a beautiful plant and worth the extra water if you can manage it, though I know from experience keeping plants going in long dry spells can be a challenge.
Best Wishes Jude
Is it ok to prune this one back quite a bit after flowering? Mine has grown very tall and would love for it to bush out again