''Olearia incana'' is a species of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

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 to southern Australia. It is a shrub with narrowly elliptic or wedge-shaped leaves and white and pale 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 incana'' is a shrub that typically grows to a height of . Its leaves are arranged alternately along the branchlets, narrowly elliptic to wedge-shaped, long, wide and

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 ...

. The edges of the leaves are sometimes coarsely toothed and both side are covered with woolly, greyish hairs. The heads or daisy-like "flowers" are arranged singly or in twos or threes on the ends of branchlets on a

peduncle Peduncle may refer to: *Peduncle (botany), a stalk supporting an inflorescence, which is the part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed *Peduncle (anatomy), a stem, through which a mass of tissue is attached to a body **Peduncle (art ...

up to long, each head with 11 to 21 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 ...

surrounding 20 to 27 pale yellow disc florets. Flowering occurs from June to November and the fruit is a silky-hairy

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 ...

, the pappus with 37 to 56 bristles.

Taxonomy

This olearia was first formally described in 1985 by David Alan Cooke who gave it the name ''Olearia pimeleoides'' subsp. ''incana'' in the ''

Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens The Adelaide Botanic Garden is a public garden at the north-east corner of the Adelaide city centre, in the Adelaide Park Lands. It encompasses a fenced garden on North Terrace, Adelaide, North Terrace (between Lot Fourteen, the site of the old ...

'', based on material collected by

Peter Bruce Copley Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a sur ...

near Maralinga in 1969. In 2008,

Nicholas Sèan Lander Nicholas Lander is an Australian botanist. References External links * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lander, Nicholas 1948 births Living people Botanists active in Australia 20th-century Australian botanists 21st-century Australian botanists ...

raised the subspecies to species status as ''Olearia incana'' in the journal ''

Nuytsia ''Nuytsia floribunda'' is a hemiparasitic tree found in Western Australia. The species is known locally as moodjar and, more recently, the Christmas tree or Western Australian Christmas tree. The display of intensely bright flowers during the ...

''. 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 ...

(''incana'') means "greyish", referring to the foliage.

Distribution and habitat

''Olearia incana'' grows in open woodland and forest, on flats and sandplains in the south-east of Western Australia, the southern half of South Australia, eastern Victoria and western New South Wales.

Conservation status

This daisy bush is listed as "not threatened" by the

Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions The Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA) is the Western Australian government The Government of Western Australia, formally referred to as His Majesty's Government of Western Australia, is the Australian state de ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15586830

incana The Socotra warbler (''Incana incana'') is a species of bird in the family Cisticolidae. It is monotypic within the genus ''Incana''. It is endemic to Socotra. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry shrubland and subtropical or trop ...

Eudicots of Western Australia Flora of South Australia Flora of New South Wales Flora of Victoria (Australia) Plants described in 1985