Olearia megalophylla
Large-leaf Daisy Bush
Large-leaf Daisy Bush
Wikipedia links: Angiosperms > Eudicots > Asterids > Asterales > Asteraceae > Olearia megalophylla
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Overview:
Olearia megalophylla, commonly known as large-leaf daisy bush, is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae and is endemic to south-eastern continental Australia
It is a spreading shrub with egg-shaped to elliptic leaves and white and yellow, daisy-like inflorescences
Common name: Large-leaf Daisy Bush
Conservation status: ...
Etymology:
Is named after Johann Gottfried Olearius, a 17th-century German scholar and author of Specimen Florae Hallensis
The specific epithet (megalophylla) means "large-leaved"
Flowers
The heads or daisy-like "flowers" are arranged in corymbs on the ends of branchlets and are 20–35 mm in diameter on a peduncle 20–60 mm long
Each head has five to nine white ray florets, the ligule 8–14 mm long, surrounding nine to fourteen yellow disc florets
Flowering occurs from December to March
Fruit:
The fruit is a more or less glabrous achene, the pappus with 51 to 80 bristles in two rows
Leaves:
Its leaves are egg-shaped to elliptic, 20–130 mm long and 6–35 mm wide on a petiole up to 30 mm long
The upper surface of the leaves is dark green and glabrous
The lower surface is densely covered with hairs similar to those on the branchlets
Stem & branches:
Its branchlets covered with felt-like, Y-shaped hairs
Roots:
Habit:
A spreading shrub that typically grows to a height of up to 2 m
Habitat:
Forest and woodland on the slopes and tablelands
Distribution:
South from near Orange NSW to near Lake Mountain in eastern Victoria
Additional notes:
Taxonomy
This daisy bush was first formally described in 1860 by Ferdinand von Mueller who gave it the name Eurybia megalophylla in Papers and Prodeedings of the Royal Society of van Dieman's Land
In 1867, George Bentham changed the name to Olearia megalophylla in Flora Australiensis
Sources of information: