Spyridium obovatum
Dusty Miller
Dusty Miller
Wikipedia links: Angiosperms > Eudicots > Fabids > Rosids > Spyridium obovatum
Other links: http://www.understorey-network.org.au/communities.html?species=Spyridium%20obovatum
Common name: Dusty Miller
Conservation status: ...
Etymology:
Obovate is with reference to the shape of the leaves
Flowers:
Small, compact heads of flowers are arranged on the ends of branchlets
Inddividual lowers are 4-5mm in diameter
Petals hood shaped
The flowers of:
var. obovatum have cream-coloured sepals, and
those of var. velutinum have yellow sepals
Fruit:
Paper capsule
Leaves:
Has egg-shaped (obovate) leaves, the narrower end towards the base,
About 13 mm long
Stem & branches:
Roots:
Habit:
It is an upright shrub that typically grows to a height of 0.9–2.5 m
Habitat:
Coastal Vegetation; Dry Eucalypt Forest and Woodland; Dry to moist shrubberies*
Site Tolerance: Dry; Moist; Rocky; Windy
Frost Tolerance: Moderate
Soil Tolerance: Clay; Loam; Phosphorous intolerant; Poor; Well-drained
Distribution:
Endemic to Tasmania
Moderately widespread in Tasmania
In scattered localities near the east coast, Tasman Peninsula and mountains of the west at altitudes of c 900 m. margins of Eucalypt forest
Additional notes:
Taxonomy
This species was first formally described in 1836 by William Jackson Hooker who gave it the name Pomaderris obovata in his Companion to the Botanical Magazine
The type specimens were collected by Ronald Campbell Gunn, the species having been discovered by James Backhouse at the mouth of the "Meredith River, Swan Port", now Swansea
In 1863, George Bentham changed the name to Spyridium obovatum in Flora Australiensis
In 1858, Siegfried Reissek described Trimalium velutinum in the journal Linnaea: Ein Journal für die Botanik in ihrem ganzen Umfange, oder Beiträge zur Pflanzenkunde from an unpublished description by Ferdinand von Mueller
In 1863, Bentham reduced the name to Spyridium obovatum var. velutinum (F.Muell. ex Reissek) Benth. in Flora Australiensis
The name, and that of the autonym (Spyridium obovatum (Hook.) Benth. var. obovatum) are accepted by the Australian Plant Census
Sources of information:
(2023)