Creeping Boobialla Myoporum parvifolium Purpurea

Purpurea is the coloured form of creeping boobialla, with fine narrow foliage carrying a bronze to purple flush that deepens through cold weather, on the flat, fast, self-layering habit of the species. Stems root wherever they touch the ground, so a planting knits into one continuous mat instead of a row of separate plants. Small white star flowers scatter across it through the warmer months. It is used where colour is doing design work: batters, median strips and carpark islands read against concrete, grey mulch and rendered walls.

Sun is what holds the colour

Full sun is not negotiable with this one, and that is the failure mode. In shade, or against a wall that catches only a few hours of light, the purple drains out to plain green, the stems stretch between leaves and the mat thins until soil shows through, and no amount of feeding or pruning will bring the colour back. Tone is strongest in an open position through the cold months and softens through a mild wet summer, so expect a seasonal swing rather than a constant colour. Everything else is straightforward. Free-draining soil, sand or gravel included, low water once established, and coastal exposure is no obstacle. Plant slightly proud with mulch pulled back from the crown, because collar rot in heavy or over-irrigated ground is the second way these plantings are lost. Space at roughly half a metre for cover in a season or two, and keep foot traffic off, since the stems snap and the mat will not knit back over a walked line. Colour depth varies between plants, so where a run must read as one even sheet, plant the whole area from a single batch rather than topping up later.

When colour is worth choosing over texture

Fine Leaf has a similar narrow leaf and a similar neat surface, but it stays green all year and will hold that appearance in a partly shaded spot where Purpurea would give up its colour. Use Fine Leaf when the position is not fully open, and Purpurea when it is and the tone is part of the design. Broad Leaf is the coarser, brighter green option for covering large areas quickly. Purpurea earns its place in small, highly visible plantings rather than in broad revegetation work, where the colour is simply too far from the viewer to register. All are in natives.

Trimming for fresh coloured growth

The purple sits strongest on new growth, so a light shear across the mat in late winter or early spring pays off twice, forcing shoots from lower down and refreshing the colour for the season ahead. Take the tips only and stay out of bare old wood, which reshoots poorly. Keep feeding light. A low-phosphorus native fertiliser in spring at half the label rate is plenty, and generous feeding pushes soft green growth that loses the bronze tone altogether. Patch replant thin sections after a few years rather than expecting one planting to last indefinitely.

Choosing a size

This plant is available in 3 sizes, from 70mm up to 200mm, priced from $16.95 to $29.95 per plant. The size shown is the pot the plant arrives in, which is the rootball, not the height of the plant. These are younger plants, priced for planting in quantity, and they establish quickly once in the ground. Not sure which to choose? Read our guide to Australian native trees.