Olearia algida
N.A.Wakef. Alpine Daisy-bushBushy shrub to c. 0.7 m high; branchlets cottony-pubescent to glabrescent. Leaves alternate, sessile or subsessile, clustered, elliptic to linear, 1–3 mm long, 0.5–1 mm wide, rounded, sometimes apiculate, upper surface dark green, glabrous or glabrescent, lower surface grey, woolly-tomentose, largely obscured by the revolute margins. Capitula sessile, solitary, terminating short lateral branchlets, 7–12 mm diam.; involucre conical, 3.5–5 mm long; bracts c. 4-seriate, graduating, obtuse, glabrous, often purplish near apex, margin membranous, often erose. Ray florets 2–6, white, ligules 2.5–5.5 mm long; disc florets 2–6, yellow. Cypsela c. cylindric, c. 1.5 mm long, sericeous; pappus bristles white to straw-coloured, c. 3 mm long. Flowers mainly Oct.–Feb.
GipP, HSF, HNF, VAlp. Also NSW, Tas. Locally common in swampy heaths and wetter shrublands of alps and subalps.
This species is imperfectly separated from O. floribunda, which is generally found at lower altitudes in central and western Victoria, and often has mauve or blue ray florets. However, there are no unique characters that define O. algida, and plants near the Cobberas and Nunniong Plateau may equally be assigned to either of these two species.
Also see note under O. phlogopappa subsp. serrata.
Walsh, N.G.; Lander, N.S. (1999). Olearia. In: Walsh, N.G.; Entwisle, T.J., Flora of Victoria Vol. 4, Cornaceae to Asteraceae, pp. 886–912. Inkata Press, Melbourne.
Spinning