''Olearia axillaris'', commonly known as coastal daisy-bush, coast daisy-bush or coastal daisybush 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 ...

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 coastal areas of Australia. It is an erect, bushy shrub with densely cottony-hairy branchlets, aromatic, linear to narrowly elliptic or narrowly lance-shaped to egg-shaped leaves with the narrower end towards the base and small white and yellow, daisy-like

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 ...

Description

''Olearia axillaris'' is an erect, bushy shrub that typically grows to a height of and has many branchlets, densely covered with white, cottony hairs. The leaves are arranged alternately along the branchlets and are aromatic, linear to narrowly elliptic or narrowly lance-shaped to egg-shaped with the narrower end towards the base, long, wide and more or less sessile. The edges of the leaves are rolled under, the surfaces covered with woolly grey hairs, densely so on the lower surface. The heads or daisy-like "flowers" are arranged singly in leaf axils or on the ends of short side branchlets and are in diameter and more or less sessile, with five or six rows of

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 forming an

involucre 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 look ...

long at the base. Each head has three to six ray

florets This glossary of botanical terms is a list of definitions of terms and concepts relevant to botany and plants in general. Terms of plant morphology are included here as well as at the more specific Glossary of plant morphology and Glossary ...

, the white petal-like

ligule A ligule (from "strap", variant of ''lingula'', from ''lingua'' "tongue") is a thin outgrowth at the junction of leaf A leaf (: leaves) is a principal appendage of the plant stem, stem of a vascular plant, usually borne laterally above g ...

s up to long, surrounding four to seven yellow disc florets. Flowering mostly occurs between December and May and the fruit is an

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 ...

long, the pappus bristles straw-coloured and about long.

Taxonomy

Coastal daisy-bush was first formally described in 1836 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 ...

who gave it the name ''Eurybia axillaris'' in '' Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis''. In 1865,

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 ...

changed the name to ''Aster axillaris'' 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 ...

'' and 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 that name to ''Olearia axillaris'' 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 ...

(''axillaris'') means "axillary", referring to the flowers.

Distribution and habitat

''Olearia axillaris'' grows in heath and scrub, mainly in near-coastal areas of New South Wales south from Sussex Inlet, the entire coase of Victoria and most of South Australia, south from

Shark Bay Shark Bay () is a World Heritage Site in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia. The area is located approximately north of Perth, on the westernmost point of the Australian continent. UNESCO's listing of Shark Bay as a World Heritage S ...

in Western Australia and in north-eastern Tasmania.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Olearia Axillaris axillaris Asterales of Australia Flora of New South Wales Flora of South Australia Flora of Tasmania Flora of Victoria (state) Eudicots of Western Australia Taxa named by Augustin Pyramus de Candolle Plants described in 1836