''Ozothamnus alpinus'', commonly known as alpine everlasting, is a 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

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 alpine and subalpine areas in south-eastern continental Australia.

Description

''Ozothamnus alpinus'' usually grows to between high, branches densely covered in yellow, short, matted hairs, turning grey as they age. The leaves are spreading and crowded along the stem, oblong shaped, long and wide, margins flat or slightly curved under, apex rounded, and on a

petiole Petiole may refer to: *Petiole (botany), the stalk of a leaf, attaching the blade to the stem *Petiole (insect anatomy) In entomology, petiole is the technical term for the narrow waist of some hymenopteran insects, especially ants, bees, and ...

long. The leaf upper surface is green and smooth, the lower surface yellowish with furry, long, stiff, shiny simple 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 small dense head of 25-60 white to yellowish flowers in a cluster in diameter, individual flowers are long and wide. The 15-19 pink or red outer

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 stand out when the flowers are in bud. Flowering occurs from February to March and the fruit is a cylindric shaped cypsela long and tapering at the apex.

Taxonomy and naming

This species was described in 1951 by Norman Wakefield based on a specimen collected in 1888 by

Carl Walter Carl Walter (c. 1831 – 7 October 1907), also known as Charles Walter, was an Australian botanist and photographer. He was born in Mecklenburg, Germany in about 1831 and arrived in Victoria in the 1850s. Botanical work Walter discovered and ...

Mount Hotham Mount Hotham is a mountain located in the Victorian Alps of the Great Dividing Range, in the Australian state of Victoria. The mountain is located approximately north east of Melbourne, from Sydney, and from Adelaide by road. The nearest ...

and given the name ''Helichrysum alpinum''. In 1991 Arne A. Anderberg gave it the name ''Ozothamnus alpinus'' and the description was published in ''Opera Botanica''.

Distribution and habitat

Alpine everlasting occurs from the

Mount Kosciuszko Mount Kosciuszko ( ; ; Ngarigo: ) is the highest mountain of the mainland Australia, at above sea level. It is located on the Main Range of the Snowy Mountains in Kosciuszko National Park, a part of the Australian Alps National Parks and ...

area and southwards on the edge of wet alpine heath or in bogs.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q7116657 alpinus Asterales of Australia Flora of New South Wales Flora of Victoria (state) Plants described in 1951