''Olearia ramulosa'', commonly known as twiggy daisy-bush, 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 south-eastern Australia. It is a shrub with narrowly elliptic, linear or narrowly egg-shaped leaves, and pale blue, mauve or 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 ramulosa'' is a shrub that typically grows to a height of . Its leaves are alternately arranged along the stems, narrowly elliptic, linear or narrowly egg-shaped with the narrower end towards tha base, long and wide with the edges rolled under. The upper surface of the leaf is covered with minute pimples and the lower surface is covered with grey, woolly hairs. The heads or daisy-like "flowers" are arranged in leaf axils or on the ends of branches and are sessile or on a peduncle up to long. The heads are in diameter with a conical

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 2 to 13 pale blue, mauve or white 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 ...

surrounding 3 to 13 yellow disc florets. Flowering occurs from October to May and the fruit is a silky-hairy

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 ...

, the pappus with 22 to 41 bristles.

Taxonomy

Jacques Labillardière Jacques-Julien Houtou de Labillardière (28 October 1755 – 8 January 1834) was a French biologist noted for his descriptions of the flora of Australia. Labillardière was a member of a voyage in search of the Jean-François de Galaup, comte ...

described the twiggy daisy bush as ''Aster ramulosus'' in 1806, in volume 2 of his ''

Novae Hollandiae Plantarum Specimen ''Novae Hollandiae Plantarum Specimen'' is a two-volume work describing the flora of Australia. Facsimiles of the originals can be found in the onlinBiodiversity Heritage Library (Vol.1)anVol 2) The author was the French botanist Jacques Labillar ...

'', from material collected in Tasmania. 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 ''Olearia ramulosus'' in ''Flora Australiensis''. 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 ...

(''ramulosus'') means "bearing branches". Other botanists gave the species other names, but the name accepted by the

Australian Plant Census The Australian Plant Census (APC) provides an online interface to currently accepted, published, scientific names of the vascular flora of Australia, as one of the output interfaces of the national government Integrated Biodiversity Information Sys ...

is ''Olearia ramulosa''. Those other botanists included German botanist

Christian Gottfried Daniel Nees von Esenbeck Christian Gottfried Daniel Nees von Esenbeck (14 February 1776 – 16 March 1858) was a prolific Germany, German botanist, physician, zoologist, and natural philosopher. He was a contemporary of Goethe and was born within the lifetime of Carl Li ...

who changed Labillardière's ''Aster ramulosus'' to ''Diplostephium ramulosum'' in 1832, and Swiss botanist

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 changed Labillardière's name to ''Eurybia ramulosa'' in 1836. Alternative common names are oily bush and water cypress.

Distribution and habitat

''Olearia ramulosa'' grows in forest, woodland and scrub, and is widespread and common from south-eastern Queensland, through New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory and eastern Victoria to south-eastern South Australia and Tasmania.

Ecology

The plant is eaten by caterpillars of the moth species '' Amelora milvaria''. Bees, beetles, and less commonly flies and wasps have been recorded visiting flowers in a Tasmanian field study.

Use in horticulture

''Olearia ramulosa'' can be propagated by seeds or cuttings of new growth that has hardened. It can be grown in dry or temperate climates and is frost-hardy in sunny or part-shaded spots. Pruning can invigorate it and it can be grown as a low hedge.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q7086009 Asterales of Australia Flora of New South Wales Flora of Tasmania Flora of Queensland Flora of the Australian Capital Territory Flora of Victoria (state) ramulosa Plants described in 1806 Taxa named by Jacques Labillardière