''Calocephalus knappii'', is a species of flowering plant in the family

Asteraceae The family Asteraceae, alternatively Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. Commonly referred to as the aster, daisy, composite, or sunflower family, Compositae w ...

. It is a small annual herb with yellow globular-shape flowers upright to decumbent branches and is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found 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 found elsew ...

to Australia.

Description

''Calocephalus knappii'' is an annual herb with decumbent or upright habit with branches about long. The leaves are arranged alternate, oval to lance-shaped or linear to elliptic, long, spreading to pressed against the stem, wide, occasional to thickly hairy and a prominent mid vein. The flower heads are oblong, rounded, globular or ovoid, about in diameter, orange or yellowish brown, each head has about 20-70 florets, outer

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 mostly green, opaque and the corolla tube long. Flowering occurs from July to October and the fruit is an

achene An achene (; ), also sometimes called akene and occasionally achenium or achenocarp, is a type of simple dry fruit produced by many species of flowering plants. Achenes are monocarpellate (formed from one carpel) and indehiscent (they do not ope ...

about long, about in diameter, brown and bristly.

Taxonomy and naming

''Calcephalus knappii'' was first formally described in 1910 by Ewart &

Jean White Jean White (1941 – 8 November 2010) was the founding pastor within the Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) in London. She was a nurse, midwife, missionary, pastor, counselor, and campaigner for LGBT, LGBTQ community and their inclusion in the ...

from an unpublished description by

Ferdinand von Mueller Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller, (german: Müller; 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 Vict ...

and the description was published in ''

Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria The Royal Society of Victoria (RSV) is the oldest scientific society in the state of Victoria in Australia. Foundation In 1854 two organisations formed with similar aims and membership, these being ''The Philosophical Society of Victoria'' (foun ...

''.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 ...

(''knappii'') is in honour of Austrian botanist Joseph Armin Knapp.

Distribution and habitat

This species grows in South Australia, Western Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory on sand, sandy clay and near drainage channels.

References

Gnaphalieae Asterales of Australia Flora of Western Australia Flora of Queensland Flora of the Northern Territory {{Australia-asterid-stub