''Olearia algida'', the alpine daisy-bush 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 south-eastern Australia. It is a shrub with small, crowded, elliptic to narrow egg-shaped leaves with the narrower end towards the base and heads of white and cream-coloured, daisy-like flowers.

Description

''Olearia algida'' is a bushy shrub that typically grows to a height of and has cottony-hairy young branchlets. The leaves are arranged alternately and crowded, elliptic to narrow egg-shaped with the narrower end towards the base, long and wide with the edges rolled under, the upper surface

glabrous Glabrousness (from the Latin ''glaber'' meaning "bald", "hairless", "shaved", "smooth") is the technical term for a lack of hair, down, setae, trichomes or other such covering. A glabrous surface may be a natural characteristic of all or part of ...

but the lower surface woolly-hairy. The daisy-like capitula are arranged singly on the ends of short side-branches and are in diameter. There are two to six white petal-like

ray florets 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 ...

with

ligule A ligule (from "strap", variant of ''lingula'', from ''lingua'' "tongue") is a thin outgrowth at the junction of leaf and leafstalk of many grasses (Poaceae) and sedges. A ligule is also a strap-shaped extension of the corolla, such as that of a ...

s long, surrounding two to six yellow

disc florets Disk or disc may refer to: * Disk (mathematics), a geometric shape * Disk storage Music * Disc (band), an American experimental music band * ''Disk'' (album), a 1995 EP by Moby Other uses * Disk (functional analysis), a subset of a vector space ...

. Flowering mainly occurs from October to February and the

cypselae 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 ...

are about long with bristles about long.

Taxonomy

''Olearia algida'' was first formally described in 1956 by

Norman Arthur Wakefield Norman Arthur Wakefield (28 November 1918 – 23 September 1972) was an Australian teacher, naturalist, paleontologist and botanist, notable as an expert on ferns. He described many new species of plants. Wakefield was born in Romsey, Victoria, ...

in ''

The Victorian Naturalist ''The Victorian Naturalist'' is a bimonthly scientific journal covering natural history, especially of Australia. It is published by the Field Naturalists Club of Victoria and is received as part of the membership subscription of that club. From ...

'' from specimens collected b
A.J. Tadgell
on Mount Bogong in 1922. 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 ...

(''algida'') is a Latin word meaning "cold".

Distribution and habitat

Alpine daisy-bush grows in heath, shrubland and grassland near swampy places in alpine and subalpine areas south from

Mount Gingera Mount Gingera is a mountain with an elevation of located within the Brindabella Range on the border between the Australian Capital Territory and New South Wales in Australia. The summit of the mountain is located within the ACT, and is the se ...

in the Australian Capital Territory, through southern New South Wales to eastern Victoria and Tasmania.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q7085981 Asterales of Australia Flora of New South Wales Flora of Tasmania Flora of Victoria (Australia)

algida This is a list of brands owned by the British multinational consumer goods company Unilever. Unilever's billion euro brands These brands have annual sales of one billion euros or more: * Axe/Lynx *Dove *Omo/Persil * Heartbrand (Wall's) ice ...

Plants described in 1956 Taxa named by Norman Arthur Wakefield