Spyridium obovatum 

Location & distribution maps

Phylogeny & links to associated information

Wikipedia links:       Angiosperms > Eudicots > Fabids > Rosids  > Spyridium   obovatum

Other links:     http://www.understorey-network.org.au/communities.html?species=Spyridium%20obovatum

Plant  information

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in the journal Linnaea: Ein Journal für die Botanik in ihrem ganzen Umfange, oder Beiträge zur Pflanzenkunde from an unpublished description by Ferdinand von Mueller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)