''Cassinia ozothamnoides'', commonly known as cottony haeckeria, 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 Victoria, Australia. It is an erect shrub with hairy branchlets, linear leaves and corymbs of up to two hundred flower heads.

Description

''Cassinia ozothamnoides'' is an erect shrub that typically grows to a height of up to with its branchlets densely covered with woolly white hairs. The leaves are linear, long and about wide. The upper surface of the leaves is dark green, the edges rolled under, the lower surface is densely covered with white, woolly hairs and there is a small point on the end. The flower heads are long, each with five or six

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 12 to 18 overlapping involucral bracts. Between 50 and 200 heads are arranged in corymbs in diameter. Flowering occurs from October to March and the achenes are long with a pappus of up to sixteen bristles long.

Taxonomy and naming

This species was first formally described in 1855 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 ...

who gave it the name ''Haeckeria ozothamnoides'' in his ''Definitions of rare or hitherto undescribed Australian plants''. In 2004, Anthony Edward Orchard changed the name to ''Cassinia ozothamnoides'' in '' Australian Systematic Botany''. 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 ...

(''ozothamnoides'') means "''

Ozothamnus ''Ozothamnus'' is a genus of plants found in Australia, New Zealand and New Caledonia. The following is a list of species' names accepted by the Australian Plant Census as at January 2020: *''Ozothamnus adnatus'' - winged everlasting *''Ozotha ...

''-like".

Distribution

''Cassinia ozothamnoides'' grows in open forest at altitudes from in central Victoria, often in disturbed sites.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15560935 ozothamnoides Asterales of Australia Flora of Victoria (state) Plants described in 1855 Taxa named by Ferdinand von Mueller