''Cassinia nivalis'' commonly known as ochre 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 eastern Victoria, Australia. It is an erect shrub with hairy, deep reddish-purple branches, hairy, needle-shaped leaves, and cream-coloured to ochre

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 hemispherical corymb.

Description

''Cassinia nivalis'' is an erect shrub that typically grows to a height of , its branches deep reddish-purple and hairy. The leaves are needle-shaped, long and wide, the upper surface of the leaves glossy green, the edges rolled under and the lower surface densely covered with white, cottony hairs. The flower heads are cream to ochre-coloured, long, each head usually 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 fourteen to eighteen overlapping involucral bracts. The corymbs are hemispherical in diameter with between eighty and one hundred heads. Flowering occurs from January to April and the achenes are ribbed, reddish-brown, long with a pappus long.

Taxonomy and naming

''Cassinia nivalis'' was first formally described in 2005 by Anthony Edward Orchard in '' Australian Systematic Botany'' from specimens collected by Cliff Beauglehole in the Barkly-Goulburn State Forest in 1985. 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 ...

(''nivalis'') means "snowy".

Distribution and habitat

Ochre cassinia grows in mountain forest and coastal woodland in eastern Victoria.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15560727 nivalis Asterales of Australia Plants described in 2005 Flora of Victoria (state)