''Spyridium parvifolium'', commonly known dusty miller, is a 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 ...

. It has dark green leaves and clusters of small, whitish flowers at the end of branches. It is widespread in eastern states of Australia.

Description

''Spyridium parvifolium'' is a low, spreading shrub to about high with smaller branches thickly covered in soft, long, rusty coloured hairs. The dull green leaves are obovate, elliptic or orb shaped, long, wide, and the apex rounded or notched. The upper surface usually veined, densely covered with long, erect, rigid hairs to densely covered with short, soft, upright hairs. The lower surface thickly covered with whitish star-shaped hairs, sometimes simple, rusty hairs over the veins, margins flat to curved under, occasionally scalloped. The leaves near the flowers are densely covered with white, short, matted hairs on the upper surface, stipules brown, long, wide and with very fine hairs. The flowers are in small heads, whitish, woolly, and borne in leafy clusters in leaf axils at the end of branches. The flower clusters about wide and surrounded by cream-white floral leaves. Flowering occurs mainly in spring and the fruit about long.

Taxonomy and naming

''Spyridium parvifolium'' was first formally described in 1862 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 ...

and the description was published in '' Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae''. 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 ...

(''parvifolium'') means "small leaved".

Distribution and habitat

Dusty miller grows on the tablelands and slopes in New South Wales south of Burrinjuck Dam and on the coast south of Twofold Bay. It also grows in Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia.

Cultivation

''Spyridium parvifolium'' has a degree of frost and drought tolerance, and adapts well to most soils and positions with adequate drainage. A prostrate form with the cultivar name 'Austraflora Nimbus', spreads to 1 metre across and is suited to coastal gardens, rockeries and containers.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q7581779 parvifolium Rosales of Australia Flora of New South Wales Flora of South Australia Flora of Tasmania Flora of Victoria (state) Taxa named by William Jackson Hooker