''Cassinia furtiva'' 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 ...

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 a restricted area of New South Wales. It is a shrub with hairy, sticky stems, narrow linear leaves and 100 to 150 flower heads arranged in a rounded

dichasium An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed on ...

Description

''Cassinia furtiva'' is a shrub that typically grows to a height of with its branchlets covered with glandular hairs embedded in a sticky resin. The leaves are narrow linear, long and about wide with the edges rolled under. The upper surface of the leaves is glabrous and the lower surface of the leaves is densely covered with cottony white hairs. The flower heads are arranged in a dichasium of 100 to 150, each head with five

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 o ...

surrounded by overlapping membranous involucral bracts in two or three

whorls A whorl ( or ) is an individual circle, oval, volution or equivalent in a whorled pattern, which consists of a spiral or multiple concentric objects (including circles, ovals and arcs). Whorls in nature File:Photograph and axial plane floral d ...

. The achenes are long with a bristly pappus of 18 to 21 bristles.

Taxonomy and naming

''Cassinia furtiva'' was first formally described in 2006 by Anthony Edward Orchard in '' Australian Systematic Botany'' from specimens collected north-west of

Warialda Warialda is a town in the North West Slopes region of New South Wales, Australia, in Gwydir Shire. Situated on the banks of Warialda Creek, the town's name means "Place of Wild Honey" in local aboriginal language. At the , Warialda had a populati ...

in 1988. 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 ...

(''furtiva'') means "hidden" or "elusive", referring to the lack of success in rediscovering this species after its discovery.

Distribution and habitat

This species of ''Cassinia'' is only known from the type specimen that was growing in shrubby woodland in hilly country.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q22284956 furtiva Asterales of Australia Flora of New South Wales Plants described in 2006