''Olearia argophylla'', commonly known as musk daisy-bush, native musk or silver shrub, 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 or tree with silvery branchlets, egg-shaped to elliptic leaves, and white and yellow, 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 argophylla'' is a shrub or tree that typically grows to a height of up to about , and has fissured to slightly stringy or flaky bark. Its branchlets are densely covered with fine, silvery or pale brown hairs pressed against the surface. The leaves are arranged alternately, egg-shaped to broadly elliptic, mostly long and wide on a petiole up to long, and have toothed edges. The upper surface of the leaves is

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 ...

and the lower surface covered with minute, woolly, white or silvery hairs. The heads are wide and arranged in

corymb Corymb is a botanical term for an inflorescence with the flowers growing in such a fashion that the outermost are borne on longer pedicels than the inner, bringing all flowers up to a common level. A corymb has a flattish top with a superficial re ...

s on the ends of branchlets, each corymb on a peduncle up to long. Each head or daisy-like "flower" has three to eight white ray

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 ...

, the petal-like

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 ...

long, surrounding three to eight yellow disc florets. Flowering mainly occurs from September to February and the fruit is a straw-coloured or pinkish

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, the pappus with 26–43 bristles about long.

Taxonomy

Musk daisy-bush was first formally described in 1806 by

Jacques Labillardière Jacques-Julien Houtou de Labillardière (28 October 1755 – 8 January 1834) was a French biologist noted for his descriptions of the flora of Australia. Labillardière was a member of a voyage in search of the Jean-François de Galaup, comte ...

who gave it the name ''Aster argophyllus'' in his book ''

Novae Hollandiae Plantarum Specimen ''Novae Hollandiae Plantarum Specimen'' is a two-volume work describing the flora of Australia. Facsimiles of the originals can be found in the onlinBiodiversity Heritage Library (Vol.1)anVol 2) The author was the French botanist Jacques Labillar ...

''. 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 argophylla'' in ''

Flora Australiensis ''Flora Australiensis: a description of the plants of the Australian Territory'', more commonly referred to as ''Flora Australiensis'', and also known by its standard abbreviation ''Fl. Austral.'', is a seven-volume flora of Australia published be ...

''. In 1825,

Henri Cassini Count Alexandre Henri Gabriel de Cassini (9 May 1781 – 23 April 1832) was a French botanist and natural history, naturalist, who specialised in the sunflower family (Asteraceae) (then known as family Compositae). He was the youngest of five chi ...

changed Labillardière's name ''Aster argophyllus'' to ''Eurybia argophylla'' in

Frédéric Cuvier Georges-Frédéric Cuvier (28 June 1773 – 24 July 1838) was a French zoologist and paleontologist. He was the younger brother of noted naturalist and zoologist Georges Cuvier. Career Frederic was the head keeper of the menagerie at the Muséu ...

's '' Dictionnaire des Sciences Naturelles'' but this name is considered a

synonym A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are all ...

by the

Australian Plant Census The Australian Plant Census (APC) provides an online interface to currently accepted, published, scientific names of the vascular flora of Australia, as one of the output interfaces of the national government Integrated Biodiversity Information Syst ...

Distribution and habitat

''Olearia argophylla'' commonly grows on cool moist sheltered slopes and in fern gullies in taller

eucalypt Eucalypt is a descriptive name for woody plants with capsule fruiting bodies belonging to seven closely related genera (of the tribe Eucalypteae) found across Australasia: ''Eucalyptus'', '' Corymbia'', '' Angophora'', ''Stockwellia'', ''Allosyn ...

forests south from the

Whian Whian State Conservation Area Whian Whian State Conservation Area is one of the protected areas of New South Wales, operated by the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service.Grampians The Grampian Mountains (''Am Monadh'' in Gaelic) is one of the three major mountain ranges in Scotland, that together occupy about half of Scotland. The other two ranges are the Northwest Highlands and the Southern Uplands. The Grampian rang ...

to Tasmania where it is common and widespread.

Use in horticulture

''Olearia argophylla'' can be propagated from seed or from cuttings. It prefers partial to full shade and is frost tolerant but prefers partial to full shade in soils that are neutral or slightly acidic.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2160632 argophylla Asterales of Australia Flora of New South Wales Flora of the Australian Capital Territory Flora of Tasmania Flora of Victoria (Australia) Plants described in 1806 Taxa named by Jacques Labillardière