''Olearia passerinoides'', commonly known as slender 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 southern continental Australia. It is a slender, sticky shrub with linear leaves, and white or pale mauve and mauve or pink daisy flowers.

Description

''Olearia passerinoides'' is a slender,

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 ...

, sticky shrub that typically grows to a height of up to . Its branchlets are arranged alternately, more or less

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 ...

and pressed against the stem, linear, long and wide. The heads or daisy-like "flowers" are arranged singly or 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 branches and are wide on a peduncle up to long, the

involucre 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 ...

bell-shaped and long. Each flower has six to fifteen white or pale mauve

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 ...

, 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 four to fourteen mauve or pink disc florets. Flowering occurs throughout the year and the

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 ...

s are silky-hairy and long, the pappus with 33 to 47 bristles.

Taxonomy

This daisy bush was first formally described in 1851 by

Nikolai Turczaninow Nikolai Stepanovich Turczaninow ( ru , Николай Степанович Турчанинов, 1796 in Nikitovka, now in Krasnogvardeysky District, Belgorod Oblast, Russia – 1863 in Kharkov) was a Russian botanist and plant collector who ...

, who gave it the name ''Diplopappus passerinoides'' in ''Bulletin de la Société Impériale des Naturalistes de Moscou'', based on plant material collected by James Drummond. 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 passerinoides'' 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 ...

''. 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 ...

(''passerinoides'') means "''

Passerina The genus ''Passerina'' is a group of birds in the cardinal family (Cardinalidae). Although not directly related to Bunting (bird), buntings in the family Emberizidae, they are sometimes known as the North American buntings (the North American ...

''-like". In 1985, David Cooke described two subspecies of ''O. passerinoides'' 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 ...

and the names are accepted 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 ...

: * ''Olearia passerinoides'' subsp. ''glutescens'' (

Sond. Otto Wilhelm Sonder (18 June 1812, Bad Oldesloe – 21 November 1881) was a German botanist and pharmacist. Life A native of Holstein, Sonder studied at Kiel University, where he sat pharmaceutical examinations in 1835, before becoming the prop ...

) D.A.Cooke has the heads arranged in corymbs with eight to fifteen ray florets, the ligules long. * ''Olearia passerinoides'' (Turcz.) Benth. subsp. ''passerinoides'' (

) D.A.Cooke has the heads arranged singly with six to nine ray florets, the ligules long.

Distribution and habitat

''Olearia passerinoides'' grows in mallee, forest and shrubland in southern continental Australia. Only subsp. ''passerinoides'' is listed as occurring in Western Australia. Both subspecies are listed as occurring in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. In Victoria, subsp. ''glutinosa'' is only known from near Inglewood but subspecies ''passerinoides'' is more widely distributed but rare, in the north-west of that state.

References

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q15589113, from2=Q66104631, from3=Q51059258 passerinoides Flora of Western Australia Flora of South Australia Flora of New South Wales Flora of Victoria (Australia) Plants described in 1851 Taxa named by Nikolai Turczaninow