''Olearia muelleri'', commonly known as Mueller daisy bush, Mueller's daisy bush or Goldfields daisy, is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae and is endemic to southern continental Australia. It is a compact or spreading shrub with scattered spatula-shaped to egg-shaped leaves with the narrower end towards the base, and white and yellow, daisy-like inflorescences.

Description

''Olearia muelleri'' is a compact or spreading shrub that typically grows to a height of and has sticky branchlets and leaves. The leaves are arranged alternately, scattered along the branchlets, spatula-shaped to egg-shaped with the narrower end towards the base, long and wide sometimes with toothed or wavy edges. The heads or daisy-like "flowers" are arranged singly on the ends of branches and are more or less sessile or 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. There is a bell-shaped involucre at the base with four to eight rows of sticky

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. Each head has seven to thirteen white ray florets, the

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 twelve to eighteen yellow disc florets. Flowering occurs from August to October 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 forty to fifty bristles.

Taxonomy

Mueller daisy bush was first formally described in 1853 by Otto Wilhelm Sonder, who gave it the name ''Eurybia muelleri'' in ''Linnaea: ein Journal für die Botanik in ihrem ganzen Umfange, oder Beiträge zur Pflanzenkunde''. In 1867, George Bentham changed the name to ''Olearia muelleri'' in '' Flora Australiensis''. 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 ...

(''muelleri'') honours

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 ...

Distribution and habitat

''Olearia muelleri'' grows in mallee woodlands or spinifex communities and is widespread in the south-west of Western Australia, the south of South Australia, north-western Victoria and the far south-west of New South Wales.

References

External links

''Olearia muelleri'' images & occurrence data
from Atlas of Living Australia {{Taxonbar, from=Q15589231 Taxa named by Otto Wilhelm Sonder Taxa described in 1853 Flora of Western Australia muelleri Flora of South Australia Flora of Victoria (Australia) Flora of New South Wales