''Spyridium eriocephalum'', commonly known as heath spyridium or heath dustymiller, is a species of flowering plant in the family

Rhamnaceae The Rhamnaceae are a large family of flowering plants, mostly trees, shrubs, and some vines, commonly called the buckthorn family. Rhamnaceae is included in the order Rosales. The family contains about 55 genera and 950 species. The Rhamnaceae h ...

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 south-eastern Australia. It is an erect to spreading shrub with linear leaves, and heads of white or cream-coloured, woolly-hairy flowers with brown

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 at the base.

Description

''Spyridium eriocephalum'' is an erect to spreading shrub that typically grows to a height of up to . Its leaves are linear, long and wide with linear brown

stipule In botany, a stipule is an outgrowth typically borne on both sides (sometimes on just one side) of the base of a leafstalk (the petiole). Stipules are considered part of the anatomy of the leaf of a typical flowering plant, although in many speci ...

s long at the base. The upper surface of the leaves is

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 ...

, the lower surface obscured by the down-rolled edges of the leaves. The heads of flowers are wide, arranged on the ends of branches with up to three floral leaves and several brown papery

s at the base. The flowers are long, white or cream-coloured and covered with woolly white hairs. Flowering mostly occurs from August to November.

Taxonomy

This species was first formally described in 1837 by

Eduard Fenzl Eduard Fenzl (1808, in Krummnußbaum – 1879, in Vienna) was an Austrian botanist. Life and contributions An obituary notes " was Professor of Botany and Director of the Imperial Botanical Cabinet, a member of the Vienna Academy of Sciences, ...

in ''

Enumeratio plantarum quas in Novae Hollandiae ora austro-occidentali ad fluvium Cygnorum et in sinu Regis Georgii collegit Carolus Liber Baro de Hügel ''Enumeratio plantarum quas in Novae Hollandiæ ora austro-occidentali ad fluvium Cygnorum et in sinu Regis Georgii collegit Carolus Liber Baro de Hügel'' is a description of the plants collected at the Swan River colony and King George Sound in ...

'' from specimens collected near the Derwent River by

Ferdinand Bauer Ferdinand Lucas Bauer (20 January 1760 – 17 March 1826) was an Austrian botanical illustrator who travelled on Matthew Flinders' expedition to Australia. Biography Early life and career Bauer was born in Feldsberg in 1760, the youngest son of ...

John McConnell Black John McConnell Black (28 April 1855 – 2 December 1951) was a Scottish botanist who emigrated to Australia in 1877 and eventually documented and illustrated thousands of flora in South Australia in the early 20th century. His publications assi ...

described two varieties of ''S. eriocephalum'' 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 ...

: * ''Spyridium eriocaphalum'' Fenzl var. ''eriocephalum''; * ''Spyridium eriocaphalum'' var. ''glabrisepalum'' J.M.Black differs from the

autonym Autonym may refer to: * Autonym, the name used by a person to refer to themselves or their language; see Exonym and endonym * Autonym (botany), an automatically created infrageneric or infraspecific name See also * Nominotypical subspecies, in zo ...

in having flower head and upper leaves that are sticky.

Distribution

''Spyridium eriocephalum'' mostly grows in mallee on sandy flats or dunes, sometimes in rocky places and is found in south-central New South Wales, mostly in the north-west of Victoria, in south-eastern South Australia and in a few isolated places in Tasmania. The variety ''glabrisepalum'' is restricted to South Australia.

References

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q17242587, from2=Q61717299, from3=Q27828799 eriocephalum Rosales of Australia Flora of New South Wales Flora of South Australia Flora of Victoria (state) Flora of Tasmania Plants described in 1837 Taxa named by Eduard Fenzl