Flowers. Photo: Don Wood, Scotia Sanctuary, NSW

Flowers. Australian Plant Image Index, photo: Murray Fagg, NW of Hay, NSW

Flowering plant. Photo: Don Wood, Scotia Sanctuary, NSW

Flowering plants. Australian Plant Image Index, photo: Murray Fagg, NW of Hay, NSW

Common Name

None

Family

Asteraceae

Notes

Perennial forb to 50cm tall.  Leaves alternating along the stem, leaf bases continuing down the stems.  Leaves probably 1-5cm long, to 5mm wide, flat, sticky, hairy, with pointed tips.  Flowers yellow, with 0 petals.  Flower heads cup-shaped to hemispherical, borne singly at the ends of the stems. 

Differs from Leiocarpa leptolepis in that narrow bases (claws) of the outer green bracts below the flower heads are clearly shorter than the claws of the inner bracts.  Differs from Leiocarpa panaetoides and Leiocarpa tomentosa in that the bracts on the flower heads below the florets are green, and hairless or with minute sticky hairs. Its leaves are broader than those of Leiocarpa panaetoides.

It intergrades with Leiocarpa leptolepis and with Leiocarpa panaetoides in NSW.

Key to the species of Leiocarpa and discussion of the differences between the species in Wilson, P.G. (2001) Leiocarpa, a new Australian genus of the Asteraceae tribe Gnaphalieae. Nuytsia 13(3): pages 598-599