Calocephalus platycephalus

Yellow top
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Asterales
Family: Asteraceae
Genus: Calocephalus
Species:
C. platycephalus
Binomial name
Calocephalus platycephalus

Calocephalus platycephalus commonly known as western beauty-heads or yellow top,[2] is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. It is an upright to sprawling herb with white hairy branches and yellow ball-shaped flower heads and is endemic to Australia.

Description

Calocephalus platycephalus is a herb with upright to ascending, whitish woolly to hairy branches and about 6–45 cm (2.4–17.7 in) high. The leaves are arranged alternately, linear to lance-shaped, mostly 5–30 mm (0.20–1.18 in) long, 1–2 mm (0.039–0.079 in) wide, more or less smooth to hairy, apex blunt to occasionally ending in a short triangular point in the upper leaves. The flower heads are yellow, broadly rounded to globe-shaped and 17-22 bracts. Flowering occurs mainly from spring to summer and the fruit is a bristly achene 0.5–0.65 mm (0.020–0.026 in) long.[2][3]

Taxonomy and naming

This species was described in 1867 by Ferdinand von Mueller who gave it the name Pachysurus platycephalus.[4] In 1867 George Bentham changed the name to Calocephalus platycephalus and the description was published in Flora Australiensis.[5][6] The specific epithet (platycephalus) means "headed".[7]

Distribution and habitat

Western beauty-heads grows in sandy and sometimes semi-salines locations in New South Wales, South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory.[2]

References

  1. ^ "Calocephalus platycephalus". Australian Plant Census. Retrieved 26 December 2023.
  2. ^ a b c Brown, E.A. "Calocephalus platycephalus". PlantNET-NSW Flora online. Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney. Retrieved 26 December 2023.
  3. ^ "Calocephalus platycephalus". eFloraSA-electronic Flora of South Australia. State Herbarium of South Australia. Retrieved 29 December 2023.
  4. ^ "Pachysurus platycephalus". Australian Plant Name Index. Retrieved 1 January 2024.
  5. ^ "Calocephalus platycephalus". Australian Plant Name Index. Retrieved 1 January 2024.
  6. ^ Bentham, George (1867). Flora Australiensis. London: Lovell Reeve & Co. p. 576.
  7. ^ George, A.S; Sharr, F.A (2021). Western Australian Plant Names and their meanings (4th ed.). Kardinya: Four Gables. p. 287. ISBN 9780958034197.