''Leucochrysum alpinum'', commonly known as alpine sunray, is a 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 ...

. It is a small, clumping perennial with grey leaves, white flower-heads 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 Australia.

Description

''Leucochrysum alpinum'' is a perennial herb to about high and leaves that are woolly and whitish. The white flower heads are in diameter, outer involucral

bract In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of ...

s oblong or oval-shaped, mostly purplish or brownish,

sessile Sessility, or sessile, may refer to: * Sessility (motility), organisms which are not able to move about * Sessility (botany), flowers or leaves that grow directly from the stem or peduncle of a plant * Sessility (medicine), tumors and polyps that ...

and florets yellow. Flowering occurs from December to February and the fruit is an egg-shaped

achene 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 ope ...

long, smooth to almost warty, bristly and brown.

Taxonomy

''Leucochrysum alpinum'' was first described in 1859 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 ''Helipterum incanum'' var. ''alpinum''. In 2010 R.J.Dennis &

Neville Grant Walsh Neville Grant Walsh (born 1956) has worked at the National Herbarium of Victoria from 1977. Together with Don Foreman, he authored the first volume of ''Flora of Victoria'', authoring a further two with Timothy John Entwisle, Timothy Entwisle. wh ...

changed the name to ''Leucochrysum alpinum'' and the description was published in '' Muelleria''.

Distribution and habitat

Alpine sunray grows at higher altitudes and in subalpine heath and grasslands mostly on shallow soils in New South Wales and Victoria.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q65941860 Gnaphalieae Flora of New South Wales Flora of the Australian Capital Territory Flora of Victoria (state)