Olearia phlogopappa subsp. serrata
MessinaShrub to 1 m high, often root-suckering. Leaves obovate, 8–22.5 mm long, 3.3–9 mm wide; margins serrate; upper surface green or yellowish-green, becoming more or less glabrous with age; lower surface white, cream or grey (sometimes yellowish when young), densely stellate-hairy, lacking glands; petiole 0.3–2.5 mm long. Capitula pedunculate, terminal, solitary or in small clusters of 2 or 3. Flowers Nov.–Jan.
HSF, VAlp. Also NSW. Restricted to a few isolated populations on the Snowy Range, Baw Baw, Nunniong Plateau and Davies Plain area, found in open heath near the margins of Eucalyptus pauciflora woodland, typically associated with valley slopes and headwaters.
This subspecies is somewhat intermediate between subspecies flavescens and O. brevipedunculata, and usually occurs in close proximity with the subspecies flavescens. It is distinguished from subspecies flavescens by the shorter, regularly serrate leaves, and from O. brevipedunculata by the green, sparsely hairy upper leaf surface and capitula on long peduncles.
Plants that resemble this subspecies but have simple hairs on all surfaces also occur on the Baw Baw plateau. These are likely to be hybrids involving O. algida and O. phlogopappa.
Spinning