''Olearia stuartii'' is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae and is endemic arid parts of inland Australia. It is compact, spreading shrub or undershrub with lance-shaped leaves and blue to mauve and yellow, daisy-like inflorescences.

Description

''Olearia stuartii'' is a compact, sticky, spreading shrub or subshrub that typically grows to a height of , the stems woody and covered with soft hairs. Its leaves are lance-shaped with the narrower end towards the base, mostly long, wide and sessile with 2 to 5 pairs of lobes on the edges. The heads or daisy-like "flowers" are arranged singly or in groups of up to four on the ends of branches and are pedunculate with a hemispherical involucre long at the base. Each head has 20 to 50 blue to mauve 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 30 to 70 yellow disc florets. Flowering occurs from June to September and the fruit is a flattened

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 ...

about long, the pappus with 20 to 30 bristles long.

Taxonomy

This daisy was first formally described in 1859 by

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 ...

who gave it the name ''Eurybia stuartii'' in '' Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae'' from specimens collected in western inland South Australia by

John McDouall Stuart John McDouall Stuart (7 September 18155 June 1866), often referred to as simply "McDouall Stuart", was a Scottish explorer and one of the most accomplished of all Australia's inland explorers. Stuart led the first successful expedition to tra ...

. In 1867 George Bentham changed the name to ''Olearia stuartii'' 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 ...

(''stuartii'') honours the collector of the

type Type may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Typing, producing text via a keyboard, typewriter, etc. * Data type, collection of values used for computations. * File type * TYPE (DOS command), a command to display contents of a file. * Ty ...

specimens.

Distribution and habitat

''Olearia stuartii'' grows in woodland on rocky hills, on ranges, near cliffs and rocky creek beds in inland Western Australia, the south of the Northern Territory, the north-west of South Australia and inland Queensland.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q7086012 stuartii Asterales of Australia Flora of the Northern Territory Flora of South Australia Flora of Western Australia Flora of Queensland Taxa named by Ferdinand von Mueller Plants described in 1859