''Polycalymma stuartii'', the poached egg daisy, is an Australian daisy found abundantly on sand plains and dunefields. Its common name is derived from the poached egg-like appearance of its white flower and yellow centre. It is the only known species of the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

''Polycalymma''; a member of the tribe Gnaphalieae within 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 ...

Origin

The poached egg daisy was named after

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 ...

and is Indigenous to a large area of Central Australia. The first scientific description was written in 1853.

Alternative names

* ham and eggs daisy * fried egg plant * bachelors' buttons

Habitat

The poached egg daisy is found abundantly during good seasons in open communities on sand plans and dune fields in Western Australia, Northern Territory, South Australia, Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. This annual daisy thrives in light to medium soil, open sunny communities and is resistant to drought and frost. CSIRO ScienceImage 4629 Poached egg daisies

CSIRO ScienceImage 4629 Poached egg daisies

Description

Cotyledons

Two (

dicot The dicotyledons, also known as dicots (or, more rarely, dicotyls), are one of the two groups into which all the flowering plants (angiosperms) were formerly divided. The name refers to one of the typical characteristics of the group: namely, t ...

) narrow lance shaped

cotyledon A cotyledon (; ; ; , gen. (), ) is a significant part of the embryo within the seed of a plant, and is defined as "the embryonic leaf in seed-bearing plants, one or more of which are the first to appear from a germinating seed." The numb ...

with a tapered base, pointed tips, edges that convex to parallel and a hairless surface.

First leaves

Narrow lance shaped first leaves with pointed tips and covered in dense short hair.

Leaves

Alternating leaves with no petiole. leaves are a light green colour, measure 20-70mm long with narrow parallel sides to lance shape with pointed tip, present woolly hairs on upper side and sticky hairs on underside and have smooth edges.

Stems

Stem is erect and stout, standing 100-500mm tall, somewhat tufted ad is woolly or very sticky with glandular hairs.

Flower head

Flower heads are compound, hemispherical and white with a yellow centre resembling a poached egg and measure 20-40mm in diameter.

Flowers

Flowers are

tubular Tubular may refer to: *having the form of a hollow cylinder, or tube *having the form of a cylinder *''Tubular'', a television-related entertainment blog on the ''Houston Chronicle'' website *''Tubular'', a level in the video game ''Super Mario Wor ...

bisexual Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, whi ...

and yellow with white 5-7mm long petals.

Fruit

Black cylindrical achene that are woolly or silky with long white hairs.

Roots

Taproot system.

Ecology

8 week lifecycle

References

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q921459, from2=Q15630444 Endemic flora of Australia Gnaphalieae Monotypic Asteraceae genera Taxa named by Otto Wilhelm Sonder Taxa named by Ferdinand von Mueller