''Cassinia tegulata'' commonly known as avenue 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 a small area near the Victoria-South Australia border. It is a small to medium-sized shrub with hairy foliage, needle-shaped leaves, and dense

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 off-white to cream-coloured flowers arranged in corymbs.

Description

''Cassinia tegulata'' is an erect shrub that typically grows to a height of , its branches covered with woolly hairs when young. The leaves are narrow linear to needle-shaped, long and wide, the edges rolled under. The flower heads are long, off-white to cream-coloured, each head with four or 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 about twenty-five overlapping involucral bracts in five

whorl 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 ...

s. The heads are arranged in groups of 100 to 150 in corymbs in diameter. Flowering occurs from February to April and the achenes are about long, with a pappus long.

Taxonomy and naming

''Cassinia tegulata'' was first formally described in 2004 by Anthony Edward Orchard in '' Australian Systematic Botany'' from specimens collected near Narracoorte in 2004.

Distribution and habitat

Avenue cassinia grows in the shrubland, in roadside vegetation and in wetland between sand dunes. It occurs near

Edenhope Edenhope is a town in Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. It is located on the Wimmera Highway, 30 kilometres from the South Australian border, in the Shire of West Wimmera local government area. At the Edenhope had a population of 946. ...

in far western Victoria and in

Lucindale Lucindale is a small town in the south-east of South Australia. The town is located south east of the state capital, Adelaide. At the 2006 census, Lucindale had a population of 301. The town is best known for hosting the annual South East Fiel ...

and Blackford in far south-eastern South Australia.

Conservation status

This cassinia is listed as "critically endangered" under the Australian Government '' Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999'' and as "endangered" under the South Australian Government '' National Parks and Wildlife Act 1972''. The main threats to the species include land clearing and roadwork maintenance, but fire has been shown to be a useful tool in regeneration of seedlings.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15561569 tegulata Asterales of Australia Plants described in 2004 Flora of South Australia