Olearia astroloba

Location & distribution maps

Phylogeny & links to associated information:

Wikipedia links:       Angiosperms > Eudicots > Asterids >  Asterales > Asteraceae > Olearia  astroloba

Other links:     

Plant  information

Common name:       Marble Daisy-bush

Conservation status:   unknown

• It is listed as "vulnerable" under the Australian Government Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 and as "threatened" under the Victorian Government Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988

• The total population is estimated to be 1,030 plants within a 40 ha area

• Potential threats include inappropriate fire regimes, weed invasion, grazing by stock and rabbits and mining for marble

Etymology:   

• Is named after Johann Gottfried Olearius, a 17th-century German scholar and author of Specimen Florae Hallensis

• The specific epithet (astroloba) means "star-shaped lobes", referring to the hairs on the disc florets

Flowers:                  

• The heads are arranged on the ends of branchlets and are 15–35 mm in diameter and sessile, with an involucre 5.5–7.5 mm in diameter at the base

• Each head or daisy-like "flower" has:

  •  12 to 24 ray florets

  • a mauve or violet, petal-like ligule 7–14 mm long

  • surrounding 12 to 45 purple disc florets

• Flowering occurs between June and July although flowers continue to appear until March 

Fruit:                         

• The fruit is a dark purplish achene, the pappus bristles 4–5 mm long

Leaves:         

•  Has more or less sessile, greyish-green, spatula-shaped leaves 5–18 mm long  and 3–10 mm wide

• often with teeth or shallow lobes near the tip

• The lower surface of the leaves is densely covered with woolly, star-shaped hairs

Stem & branches:  

•  x

Roots:         

• x

Habit:        

• A greyish shrub with sessile, spatula-shaped leaves and mauve or violet and purple, daisy-like inflorescences

• Typically grows to a height of up to about 0.5 m 

Habitat:   

• It grows on skeletal soils on steep north-facing slopes at an altitude of about 600 m near the headwaters of the Tambo River

• Associated plant species are:

  •  Allocasuarina verticillata, 

  • Eucalyptus nortonii,

  • Pomaderris oraria subsp. calcicola,

  • Ozothamnus adnatus and 

  • Themeda triandra

Distribution:                  

• Endemic to a restricted area of Victoria in Australia 

• It is restricted to Marble Gully, near Mount Tambo in East Gippsland, Victoria

Additional notes:        

• Taxonomy

  • Olearia astroloba was first formally described in 1989 by Nicholas Sean Lander and Neville Grant Walsh in the journal Muelleria based on plant material collected from Marble Gully in 1988

• Use in horticulture

  • The species prefer a well-drained position in full sun or part shade

  • It is able to withstand drought and moderate frost

  • Pruning promotes new growth and increased flowering

  • Propagation is by cuttings or seed, though a large percentage of the latter is often non-viable

Sources of information:

• (2023)