''Olearia quercifolia'', commonly known as oak-leaved olearia, 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 the Blue Mountains in New South Wales. It is a shrub with elliptic to egg-shaped leaves with the narrower end towards the base, and white and yellow daisy flowers.

Description

''Olearia quercifolia'' is a shrub that typically grows to a height of . It has scattered elliptic to egg-shaped leaves with the narrower end towards the base arranged alternately along the stems, the leaves long and wide on a petiole up to long. The edges of the leaves are lobed and the lower surface is covered with yellow, woolly hairs. The heads or daisy-like "flowers" are arranged in leaf axils 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 in diameter with 7 to 15 white ray florets and 18 to 29 yellow disc florets. Flowering occurs from July to December 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 glabrous, the pappus with 27 to 42 long bristles.

Taxonomy and naming

''Olearia quercifolia'' was first formally described in 1836 by Augustin Pyramus de Candolle in his ''

Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis ''Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis'' (1824–1873), also known by its standard botanical abbreviation ''Prodr. (DC.)'', is a 17-volume treatise on botany initiated by Augustin Pyramus de Candolle. De Candolle intended it as a summa ...

'', from an unpublished description of specimens collected by Allan Cunningham. 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 ...

(''quercifolia'') means "oak-leaved".

Distribution and habitat

Oak-leaved olearia grows in swampy places in the Blue Mountains of eastern New South Wales.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15588282 quercifolia Flora of New South Wales Plants described in 1836 Taxa named by Augustin Pyramus de Candolle