Leucochrysum molle
Leucochrysum molle, commonly known as hoary sunray, is a flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. It is a small, clumping perennial with grey leaves, yellow flower-heads and is endemic to Australia.
Description
Leucochrysum molle is a clumping, woolly annual or occasionally a perennial to high. The leaves are narrowly lance-shaped to narrow-oblong, woolly, up to long, wide, grey, rounded or tapering to a point at the apex. The flower heads in diameter, borne singly on a slim peduncle long. The outer bracts light brown, inner bracts triangular to oval-shaped or almost circular, yellow, arranged in rows and lamina long. Flowering occurs in spring and the fruit is a cypsela about long, brown and sometimes warty.
This species was first described in 1838 as Helichrysum molle by Augustin Pyramus de Candolle from an unpublished description by Allan Cunningham. In 1992 Paul G. Wilson changed the name to Leucochrysum molle and the description was published in Nuytsia. The specific epithet means "soft".
Distribution and habitat
Hoary sunray grows on a variety of soil types in woodlands, grasslands and sandplains in New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and Victoria.