''Cassinia cunninghamii'', commonly known as Cunninghams everlasting, is a plant native to central New South Wales in eastern Australia.

Description

''Cassinia cunninghamii'' is a small shrub high with woolly stems and whitish hairs. The leaves are crowded on the stems long and wide, the edges rolled under and ending in a sharp point at the tip. The leaf upper surface is dark green and rough with fine short hairs. The underside densely covered with long white matted hairs. The

inflorescence In botany, an inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a plant's Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a system of branches. An inflorescence is categorized on the basis of the arrangement of flowers on a mai ...

is a thick

corymb Corymb is a botanical term for an inflorescence with the flowers growing in such a fashion that the outermost are borne on longer pedicels than the inner, bringing all flowers up to a common level. A corymb has a flattish top with a superficial re ...

in diameter, each yellow flower about long and about in diameter. The overlapping

bracts 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 loo ...

are in longitudinal rows of 3 or 4, broadly rounded and translucent brown. The dry, one seeded fruit are long and smooth.

Taxonomy and naming

''Cassinia cunninghamii'' was first formally described in 1838 by

Augustin Pyramus de Candolle Augustin Pyramus (or Pyrame) de Candolle (, , ; 4 February 17789 September 1841) was a Swiss people, Swiss botany, botanist. René Louiche Desfontaines launched de Candolle's botanical career by recommending him at a herbarium. Within a couple ...

and the description was published in '' Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis''. 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 ...

''cunninghamii'' honours the botanical collector Allan Cunningham.

Distribution and habitat

Cunninghams everlasting grows on sandstone in dry sclerophyll forest mostly from the upper

Hunter Region The Hunter Region, also commonly known as the Hunter Valley, Newcastle Region, or simply Hunter, spans the region in northern New South Wales, Australia, extending from approximately to north of Sydney. It contains the Hunter River (New Sout ...

Nowra Nowra () is a city in the South Coast, New South Wales, South Coast region of New South Wales, Australia. It is located south-southwest of the state capital of Sydney (about as the crow flies). As of the 2021 census, Nowra has an estimated po ...

and west to

Newnes Newnes (), an abandoned oil shale mining site of the Wolgan Valley, is located in the Central Tablelands region of New South Wales, Australia. The site that was operational in the early 20th century is now partly surrounded by Wollemi Nation ...

in New South Wales.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15561003 cunninghamii Asterales of Australia Flora of New South Wales Plants described in 1838 Taxa named by Augustin Pyramus de Candolle