''Cassinia monticola'' commonly known as mountain cassinia, 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 mountain areas of south-eastern Australia. It is a spreading shrub with sticky, narrow linear to narrow lance-shaped leaves, and bronze-coloured to greenish-cream

heads A head is the part of an organism which usually includes the ears, brain, forehead, cheeks, chin, eyes, nose, and mouth, each of which aid in various sensory functions such as sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Some very simple animals may no ...

of flowers arranged in a dense, round-topped

corymb Corymb is a botanical term for an inflorescence with the flowers growing in such a fashion that the outermost are borne on longer pedicels than the inner, bringing all flowers up to a common level. A corymb has a flattish top with a superficial re ...

Description

''Cassinia maritima'' is a spreading shrub that typically grows to a height of , its branches covered with cottony and glandular hairs. The leaves are narrow linear to narrow lance-shaped, long and wide, the upper surface of the leaves glossy green and sticky, the edges rolled under and the lower surface densely covered with white, woolly hairs. The flower heads are long and bronze-coloured, fading to straw-coloured or greenish-cream, each head with four to six creamy-white

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 sixteen to twenty overlapping involucral bracts in four

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 ...

. The heads are arranged in groups of several hundred in a dense, round-topped corymb in diameter. Flowering occurs from February to March and the

achenes 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 op ...

are long with a pappus of 23 to 26 bristles.

Taxonomy and naming

''Cassinia maritima'' was first formally described in 2004 by

Anthony Edward Orchard Anthony Orchard (born 22 May 1946) is a retired botanist who worked at the State Herbarium of South Australia. His main interests were the study of the genera Rosaceae, Haloragaceae, Asteraceae and Rubiaceae. Anthony (Tony) Orchard is a system ...

in ''

Australian Systematic Botany ''Australian Systematic Botany'' is an international peer-reviewed scientific journal published by CSIRO Publishing. It is devoted to publishing original research, and sometimes review articles, on topics related to systematic botany, such as bio ...

'' from specimens collected near

Thredbo Thredbo is a village and ski resort in the Snowy Mountains of New South Wales, Australia, situated in a part of the Snowy Monaro Regional Council, and has been operated by Event Hospitality and Entertainment since 1987. It is approximately s ...

in 2004. 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 ...

(''monticola'') means "dweller in mountains".

Distribution and habitat

Mountain cassinia grows in herbfield, grassland and shrubland in alpine and subalpine areas above in the

Snowy Mountains The Snowy Mountains, known informally as "The Snowies", is an IBRA subregion in southern New South Wales, Australia, and is the tallest mountain range in mainland Australia, being part of the continent's Great Dividing Range cordillera system ...

of southern New South Wales and mountain areas of north-eastern Victoria.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15560605 monticola Asterales of Australia Flora of New South Wales Plants described in 2004 Flora of Victoria (Australia) Flora of the Australian Capital Territory