''Argentipallium obtusifolium'', commonly known as blunt everlasting, is a species of flowering plant in the family

Asteraceae Asteraceae () is a large family (biology), family of flowering plants that consists of over 32,000 known species in over 1,900 genera within the Order (biology), order Asterales. The number of species in Asteraceae is rivaled only by the Orchi ...

. It is a small, multi-stemmed perennial with white flowers, dark green leaves and is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to Australia.

Description

''Argentipallium obtusifolium'' is a small, multi-stemmed-stemmed perennial to high. The branches are white-silvery, more or less sticky from glandular, matted, woolly hairs and the leaves narrow oblanceolate, long, wide, upper surface smooth, lower surface woolly, silvery-white and the margins recurved. The flowers are borne singly at the end of upright branchlets, usually long and in diameter at maturity. The outer

bract In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves in size, color, shape or texture. They also lo ...

s semi-transparent, mostly sticky and woolly, inner bracts edges white, dry and mostly long. Flowering occurs mainly in winter to spring and the fruit is an oblong-shaped, brown

achene An achene (; ), also sometimes called akene and occasionally achenium or achenocarp, is a type of simple fruit, simple dry fruits, dry fruit produced by many species of flowering plants. Achenes are monocarpellate (formed from one carpel) and Dehi ...

Taxonomy and naming

This species was first described in 1853 by

Ferdinand von Mueller Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, (; 30 June 1825 – 10 October 1896) was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and most notably, a botanist. He was appointed government botanist for the then colony of Victoria, Australia ...

and

Otto Wilhelm Sonder Otto Wilhelm Sonder (18 June 1812, Bad Oldesloe – 21 November 1881) was a German botanist and pharmacist. Life A native of Holstein, Sonder studied at Kiel University, where he sat pharmaceutical examinations in 1835, before becoming the pro ...

and given the name ''Helichrysum obtusifolium''. In 1993

Paul Graham Wilson Paul Graham Wilson (January 1928 – 29 July 2024) was an Australian botanist. As of 1998, Wilson was the most prolific contributor to the journal '' Nuytsia'', contributing to the first issue in 1970 and to the 12th volume in 1998, which was de ...

changed the name to ''Argentipallium obtusifolium'' and the description was published in the journal ''

Nuytsia ''Nuytsia floribunda'' is a hemiparasitic tree found in Western Australia. The species is known locally as moodjar and, more recently, the Christmas tree or Western Australian Christmas tree. The display of intensely bright flowers during the ...

''.

Distribution and habitat

Blunt everlasting grows on deep sandy soils in mallee and coastal heath in Victoria, Tasmania, New South Wales, South Australia and Western Australia.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15586157 obtusifolium Flora of Western Australia Flora of South Australia Flora of Tasmania Flora of New South Wales Plants described in 1992 Taxa named by Ferdinand von Mueller Taxa named by Otto Wilhelm Sonder