Astroloma Species, Cranberry Heath, Native Cranberry

Cranberry Heath is an little Australian shrub, no more than 10 cm high and spreading to about 0.5 metres. It is a plant of heaths, usuall...Read Morey on sandy soils, quite common in South-Eastern Australia. The leaves are short and end in a sharp point and the flowers which are usual in late summer to autumn, are little red cigar-shaped tubes. Its fruit is an edible berry, with a pleasant sweet taste, but somewhat mucilaginous in texture. I have successfully transplanted two small plants to my garden and they flowered for the first time last autumn. I understand that they can be grown from seed, but the seed has a hard coating that must be scarified first. Germination can be slow (up to 5 years has been mentioned), but is apparently helped by two extended periods in a refrigerator.