Rhodanthe stricta
(Lindl.) Paul G.Wilson Slender SunrayErect, glabrous annual, 10–50 cm high. Leaves alternate or the lower ones opposite, lanceolate or oblanceolate, 10–50 mm long, 2–12 mm wide, sometimes subamplexicaul, glabrous but with sessile glands, often glaucous. Capitula seemingly heterogamous, campanulate, c. 10–15 mm long, solitary or in very loose corymbs; involucral bracts several-seriate, glabrous, outer bracts small, brownish, innermost bracts with hyaline-winged claws and spreading white laminae 2–5 mm long. Florets numerous, majority bisexual but innermost probably functionally male. Cypselas c. 4 mm long, densely silky-hairy; pappus persistent, of c. 15–25 long-plumose bristles, with a tuft of clavate hairs at apex. Flowers Jul.–Dec. (including non–Victorian records).
MSB, MuF. Also WA, NT, SA, Qld, NSW. Known in Victoria from recent collections in the north-west where recorded from chenopod-dominated shrublands on the Murray River floodplain at Neds Corner Station. The 1978 specimen purportedly from the Barmah Forest is most likely a result of inadvertent mixture of collections of Central Australia and Victorian origins, and is now believed to have originated from near the Flinders Ranges, S.A.. The species can be locally common following flooding of the river, but is otherwise very rare.
Short, P.S. (1999). Rhodanthe. In: Walsh, N.G.; Entwisle, T.J., Flora of Victoria Vol. 4, Cornaceae to Asteraceae, pp. 752–757. Inkata Press, Melbourne.
Spinning
