Family: Asteraceae
Gnaphalium ensifer
Citation:
D. Drury, New Zealand J. Bot. 10:150 (1972).
Synonymy: G. japonicum sensu Paul G. Wilson in H. Eichler, Suppl. 313 (1965), partly, non Thunb.
Common name: None
Description:
Perennial herb 4-10 cm high, spreading by stolons to form rather loose patches; basal leaves forming rosettes, narrowly elliptic to spathulate, attenuate at the base, acute, 1-5 cm long, 2-5 cm wide, green and sparsely cobwebby with a deep mid-vein groove above, densely whitish-tomentose below; margins straight.
Flowering stems axillary, ascending, unbranched, 2-10 cm long, Whitish-tomentose; cauline leaves few, narrowly elliptic, 2-15 mm long, 1-2 mm wide; capitula 2-9 in a dense globose terminal cluster subtended by c. 3 narrowly lanceolate leaf-like bracts, the longest one shortly exceeding the capitula; capitular involucral bracts in 3 unequal series, to 5 mm long, broadly ovate to oblong, acute, glabrous, green near the base, pale-brown and scarious above, often purplish at the junction; female florets 40-60; corolla filiform, c. 2 mm long; bisexual florets 3-7; corollas 2-3 mm long.
Achenes obovoid, c. 0.6 mm long, brown; pappus bristles 6-9, cohering at the base and deciduous in groups, c. 2.5 mm long, almost smooth.
Distribution:
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In scrub, woodland and forest, often near water.
Vic.; Tas. New Zealand.
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Conservation status:
native
Flowering time: Oct. — Dec.
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SA Distribution Map based
on current data relating to
specimens held in the
State Herbarium of South Australia
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Biology:
Australian material appears to be conspecific with G. enstifer, described from New Zealand; however, revision of Gnaphalium in Australia may show it to represent a distinct species.
Author:
Not yet available
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