Calocephalus Francisii
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''Calocephalus francisii'', commonly known as fine-leaf beauty-heads, 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 annual with yellow globular-shape flowers 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 Western Australia.


Description

''Calocephalus francisii'' is an annual herb with some branches upright to downward, mostly smooth but hairy toward the flower heads. The leaves are arranged alternately, sessile, almost linear, lance-shaped or narrowly elliptic-shaped, long, wide, occasionally semi-succulent and smooth. The flower heads may vary in shape from globe, narrowly oblong to oval shaped, long and in diameter. The heads consist of 15-60 flowers, yellow or white translucent
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 in rows of 2 or 3, outer 4 or 5 bracts in a single row. The inner 5-9 bracts in one or two rows, corolla has thickened margins, 5 lobes, tube long and 5
stamens The stamen (: stamina or stamens) is a part consisting of the male reproductive organs of a flower. Collectively, the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filamen ...
. Flowering occurs from August to October and the fruit is dry, one-seeded, obovoid, in diameter, pale or pinkish brown.


Taxonomy and naming

This species was first formally described in 1863 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 ...
who gave it the name ''Pachysurus francisii'' in ''
Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae ''Fragmenta phytographiae Australiae'' is a series of papers written by the Victorian Government botanist Ferdinand von Mueller in which he published many of his approximately 2000 descriptions of new taxa of Australian plants. Including the p ...
''. In 1867
George Bentham George Bentham (22 September 1800 – 10 September 1884) was an English botanist, described by the weed botanist Duane Isely as "the premier systematic botanist of the nineteenth century". Born into a distinguished family, he initially studie ...
changed the name to ''Calocephalus francisii'' and the description was published in ''
Flora Australiensis ''Flora Australiensis: a description of the plants of the Australian Territory'', more commonly referred to as ''Flora Australiensis'', and also known by its standard abbreviation ''Fl. Austral.'', is a seven-volume Flora of Australia published b ...
''. The
specific epithet In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin gramm ...
(''francisii'') is in honour of
George William Francis George William Francis (1800–9 August 1865) was an English horticulturalist and science writer. He migrated to the colony of South Australia in 1849 and became the first director of the Adelaide Botanic Garden in 1860. Life Born in London, F ...
.


Distribution and habitat

Fine-leaf beauty-heads grows in sandy situations, outcrops, ridges and salt flats mostly on the west coast of Western Australia.


References

Gnaphalieae Asterales of Australia Flora of Western Australia {{Australia-asterid-stub