Click on images to enlarge
habit (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
leaves and flower (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
close-up of seeds (Photo: Steve Hurst at USDA PLANTS Database)
Scientific Name
Vinca minor L.
Family
Apocynaceae
Common Names
common periwinkle, dwarf periwinkle, lesser periwinkle, periwinkle, running myrtle, vinca
Origin
Native to southern and central Europe (i.e. France, Portugal, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Italy, Romania, Yugoslavia and south-western Russia).
Naturalised Distribution
Locally naturalised in southern and north-eastern Victoria.
Also widely naturalised overseas in the British Isles (i.e. the UK and Ireland), northern Europe (e.g. Denmark and Finland), southern Africa (e.g. Kenya and Tanzania), New Zealand, North America (i.e. the USA and Canada) and southern South America (e.g. Chile).
Notes
Lesser periwinkle (Vinca minor) is regarded as an environmental weed in Victoria. It is a particular problem in the Dandenong Ranges region, east of Melbourne.