EURAH
Myoporum montanum
Plant Family
Scrophulariaceae
Alternative Common Names
Water bush, boobialla, bush boobialla, boomeralla, native daphne, native myrtle, mee-mee, nymoo.
Erect bushy shrub, 1-3m high.
Leaves - alternate, lanceolate, 3-10cm long, 5-10mm wide, pointed at the tip, shortly stalked.
Flowers - white, with purple spots inside, borne erect on stalks 6-10mm long, clustered in groups in the leaf axils, each flower 6-8mm long, bell-shaped, usually 5 lobed, the lobes rounded, bearded inside; stamens 4, protruding.
Fruit - globular drupe, 6-8mm diameter, becoming purple as it ages.
Flowering late winter-early summer.
Indigenous uses - important shrub in Toomelah, Boggabilla, Mungindi & Moree area. They call it the eurah bush & it is regarded as a miracle cure. Leaves boiled & resulting concoction used to treat wounds. The concoction was and still is taken internally to cure a number of ailments. Because it tastes unpleasant a sweet is normally sucked before a spoonful is taken, 3 times a day. Before access to cooking utensils a hole would be dug, leaves heated over coals & then laid on by a person to cure back pain. Old timers also used it as an eye wash.
Habitat
Common in mallee, bimble box and white cypress pine communities and extends through the mulga, belah-rosewood, bluebush and western bladder saltbush areas; mainly on red earths and solonized brown soils but also in rocky hillside situations and on brown gibber soils; in the drier parts it is a common species along creek banks, on alluvial flats and around ground tanks and waterholes.
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