''Olearia alpicola'', commonly known as alpine daisy bush, is a shrub 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 found in mountainous terrain in

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

and

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

in Australia. A small shrub with spreading branches and white daisy-like

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

Description

''Olearia alpicola'' is an open spreading shrub to high. The branchlets are densely covered with T-shaped hairs. The leaves are oblong to egg-shaped, long and about wide and arranged sparsely in opposite pairs. The leaf upper surface is green, smooth and the margin entire. The underside is covered in densely matted short white-grey hairs with a network of veins, ending in either a blunt or pointed apex. The leaf is on a petiole long. The inflorescence is a cluster of 6-7 white flowers in diameter at the end of branches on a stalk long. The 4-6 overlapping

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 are conical shaped, arranged in rows, edges fringed and sometimes a purplish colour. The floret centre is yellow. The one-seeded fruit is narrowly egg-shaped long, mostly smooth or with a few dense silky white to pale yellowish hairs long at the apex.

Taxonomy and naming

This species was first formally described in 1860 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 ''Eurybia alpicola'' and published the description in ''Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Van Diemen's Land''. In 1867,

George Bentham George Bentham (22 September 1800 – 10 September 1884) was an English botanist, described by the weed botanist Duane Isely as "the premier systematic botanist of the nineteenth century". Born into a distinguished family, he initially studi ...

changed the name to ''Olearia alpicola''. 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 ...

(''alpicola'') means "dweller in high mountains.

Distribution and habitat

The alpine daisy-bush grows in damp mountainous situations and dry sclerophyll forests of the eastern ranges in Victoria and south of Ebor and to the

Warrumbungle Range The Warrumbungles is a mountain range in the Orana region of New South Wales, Australia. The nearest town is Coonabarabran. The area is easiest accessed from the Newell Highway which is the major road link directly between Melbourne, Victoria ...

s in New South Wales.

References

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q15586275, from2=Q38762108 Flora of New South Wales alpicola Flora of Victoria (Australia) Taxa named by Ferdinand von Mueller Plants described in 1860