''Olearia ciliata'', commonly known as the fringed daisy bush, is a small shrub with large clusters of bright purple-blue flowers on a single stem.

Description

''Olearia ciliata'' is a small upright spreading shrub about high with more or less woody, wiry, reddish stems long. The stems are rough with short hairs and are finely ribbed usually branched from the base of the plant. The leaf upper side is bright green, rough or slightly smooth with a paler hairy underside, about long and

sessile Sessility, or sessile, may refer to: * Sessility (motility), organisms which are not able to move about * Sessility (botany), flowers or leaves that grow directly from the stem or peduncle of a plant * Sessility (medicine), tumors and polyps that ...

. The leaves are linear to narrow tapering gradually to a fine point or occasionally lobed at the apex long and wide. The leaf margins are entire, rough with short white hairs, rolled under and fringed. The single flowers are at the end of an unbranched

peduncle Peduncle may refer to: *Peduncle (botany), a stalk supporting an inflorescence, which is the part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed *Peduncle (anatomy), a stem, through which a mass of tissue is attached to a body **Peduncle (art ...

long. The 3 green over-lapping

bract In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of ...

s are woolly, narrow lance-shaped and fringed. The flowers are across with mauve to purple "petals" (strictly

ligules A ligule (from "strap", variant of ''lingula'', from ''lingua'' "tongue") is a thin outgrowth at the junction of leaf and leafstalk of many grasses (Poaceae) and sedges. A ligule is also a strap-shaped extension of the corolla, such as that of a ...

of the ray florets) are long. The flower centre is yellow and consists of 40-75 disk florets. The fruit is a dry one-seeded capsule about long, smooth or with fine soft hairs and faint longitudinal lines. Flowers from late winter to spring on occasion in autumn.

Taxonomy and naming

Fringed daisy bush was first formally described in 1837 by George Bentham who gave it the name ''Eurybia ciliata'' in Stefan Endlicher's '' Enumeratio plantarum quas in Novae Hollandiae ora austro-occidentali ad fluvium Cygnorum et in sinu Regis Georgii collegit Carolus Liber Baro de Hügel'' from specimens collected near King George Sound. In 1867, George Bentham changed the name to ''Olearia ciliata'' in '' Flora Australiensis''. The

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

(''ciliata'') means "fringed with fine hairs" and is derived from the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

word ''cilium'' meaning "eyelash" or "eyelid".

Distribution and habitat

The fringed daisy-bush is a widespread species found in several southern Australian states predominantly on well-drained sandy soils. In Victoria it grows on sandy and mallee heath in the north-west of Victoria and scattered locations in the woodlands of the

Grampians The Grampian Mountains (''Am Monadh'' in Scottish Gaelic, Gaelic) is one of the three major mountain ranges in Scotland, that together occupy about half of Scotland. The other two ranges are the Northwest Highlands and the Southern Uplands. T ...

Brisbane Ranges The Brisbane Ranges National Park is a national park in the Barwon South West region of Victoria, Australia, The national park is situated approximately west of Melbourne near the town of and is managed by Parks Victoria. The park covers par ...

and

Wilsons Promontory Wilsons Promontory, is a peninsula that forms the southernmost part of the Australian mainland, located in the state of Victoria. South Point at is the southernmost tip of Wilsons Promontory and hence of mainland Australia. Located at nearb ...

. In Western Australia it grows on rocky

lateritic Laterite is both a soil and a rock type rich in iron and aluminium and is commonly considered to have formed in hot and wet tropical areas. Nearly all laterites are of rusty-red coloration, because of high iron oxide content. They develop by ...

or sandy soils on coastal dunes and sand plains mainly near Esperance and Albany. In South Australia mostly on coastal fringes and in Tasmania along the east and south-east coast.

References

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q15586252 ciliata Flora of Victoria (Australia) Flora of Western Australia Flora of South Australia Flora of Tasmania Taxa named by Ferdinand von Mueller Plants described in 1837