Trachymene composita

Location & distribution maps

Common name:         Parsnip Trachymene

Conservation status: . . .

Etymology:   

Flowers:

• Umbels usually numerous, often umbellately arranged, c. 40–200-flowered; peduncle 2–11 cm long; involucral bracts c. 18–35, subulate, 4–9 mm long, ciliate (rarely glabrous); pedicels 6–20 mm long

• Petals obovate to orbicular, 1–2.5 mm long, white; stamens 1–2 mm long; styles 0.5–1.5 mm long

Fruit:                            

• Mericarps 2.5–5 mm long, 2–4 mm wide, smooth, tuberculate, or rarely, hirsute, often one of some or most pairs smaller

Leaves:         

• Leaves tufted at base (sometimes absent at flowering) and cauline

• Lamina ternately dissected, 2–15 cm diam., with toothed or lobed cuneate segments, or uppermost leaves with segments entire and oblong, surfaces variably hispid, rarely glabrous

• Petioles to c. 15 cm long, hispid or glabrous (but then margins of sheathing bases ciliate)

Stem & branches: 

Roots:         

Habit:        

• Erect, taprooted annual or biennial to c. 250 cm high, often glaucous

Habitat:   

Distribution:                  

• South eastern Australia

Additional notes:     

• Taxonomy

  • Trachymene glaucifolia(F. Muell.) Benth. was collected last century near the Victoria–NSW border from the junction of the Murray and Darling Rivers

  • It is generally distinguished from glabrous and glaucous forms of Trachymene composita by its bluish flowers, and in the development of only 1 mericarp from each pair

Sources of information:

• https://vicflora.rbg.vic.gov.au/flora/taxon/acc75962-5bea-4e2a-a199-0e8a6b50ea17 (2024)