''Streptoglossa odora'' 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 ...

. It is a spreading, perennial herb with pink or bluish-purple flowers. It grows in Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory.

Description

''Streptoglossa odora'' is an upright perennial herb to high. The leaves and branches are strongly fragrant, and covered with soft, weak, separated thin hairs to long, soft hairs and thickly glandular. The leaves of the larger branches are oblong-lance shaped, occasionally linear-shaped, long, wide,

decurrent ''Decurrent'' (sometimes decurring) is a term used in botany and mycology to describe plant or fungal parts that extend downward. In botany, the term is most often applied to leaf blades that partly wrap or have wings around the stem or petio ...

at the base, margins smooth or toothed and pointed at the apex. The pink or blue-purple "flowers" are scattered on variable length branches, and florets in a group of mostly 15-30. Flowering occurs from July to August and the fruit is dry, one-seeded, long and covered in silky, flattened hairs.

Taxonomy and naming

''Streptoglossa odora'' was first described 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 ...

as ''Pluchea odora''. In 1981

Clyde Robert Dunlop Clyde may refer to: People * Clyde (given name) * Clyde (surname) Places For townships see also Clyde Township Australia * Clyde, New South Wales * Clyde, Victoria * Clyde River, New South Wales Canada * Clyde, Alberta * Clyde, Ontario, a to ...

changed the name to ''Streptoglossa odora'' and the description was published in ''

Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Garden The Adelaide Botanic Garden is a public garden at the north-east corner of the Adelaide city centre, in the Adelaide Park Lands. It encompasses a fenced garden on North Terrace (between Lot Fourteen, the site of the old Royal Adelaide Hospital ...

''. 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 ...

(''odora'') means "fragrant".

Distribution and habitat

This streptoglossa grows in open areas of woodland and scrubland on sandy clay as well as saline depressions in northern Australia from the

Kimberley Kimberly or Kimberley may refer to: Places and historical events Australia * Kimberley (Western Australia) ** Roman Catholic Diocese of Kimberley * Kimberley Warm Springs, Tasmania * Kimberley, Tasmania a small town * County of Kimberley, a ...

to the Northern Territory into western and central Queensland.

References

` {{Taxonbar, from=Q15554663 Asterales of Australia Flora of the Northern Territory Flora of Western Australia Flora of Queensland odora