Westringia 'Poorinda Pavane'

Westringia ‘Poorinda Pavane’ is a spreading shrub that reaches a height of 2 metres in our garden.

It is another cultivar reported to be a hybrid of W. fruticosa and W. glabra. It was created by Mr Leo Hodge in the 1970s, who owned the property, Poorinda, in Victoria and created many Australian cultivars.

Westringia spp. have simple and opposite or whorled leaves, usually in whorls of 3 to 5. In this cultivar, they are in whorls of 4, to 20 mm long and to 5 mm wide, green to grey-green in colour and white-hairy beneath.

Flowers have a shape described as labiate (applies to all Lamiaceae flowers) with 5 petals varying in their size, fused at their base, produced in leaf axils. One of the identification features which separates Westringia from Prostanthera is that the 5 calyx parts (basal whorl of the flower) are separated into 5 parts, whereas they are fused into 2 ‘lips’ in Prostanthera. Flowers are typically solitary but clustered heavily in leaf axils, appearing as leafy racemes. In this cultivar, the flowers are about 1.5 centimetres across, pale lilac with an orange-dotted white centre. Blooms are both conspicuous and profuse. Peak flowering occurs from September to November. Our plants also carry a few flowers at other times.

The fruit of Westringia are small mericarps or ‘nutlets’. A cluster of 4 is produced at the base of each flower after pollination. They are only 1 to 2 mm long.