Cassinia venusta explained

Cassinia venusta is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae and is endemic to a small area near the border between New South Wales and Victoria. It is an erect shrub with glandular-hairy branchlets, glossy green, needle-shaped leaves, and corymbs of hundreds to thousands of yellowish flower heads.

Description

Cassinia venusta is an erect shrub that typically grows to a height of with its branchlets densely covered with glandular hairs. The leaves are needle-shaped, long and wide. The upper surface of the leaves is glossy green and slightly sticky, the edges are rolled under and the lower surface is covered with woolly hairs. The flower heads are pale yellowish to green, long, wide, each head with four to seven dark yellow florets surrounded by ten to fourteen papery involucral bracts long. Between hundreds and thousands of heads are arranged in corymbs in diameter. Flowering occurs from November to February and the achenes are about long and lack a pappus.[1] [2]

Taxonomy and naming

Cassinia venusta was first formally described in 2004 by Anthony Edward Orchard in Australian Systematic Botany from specimens collected on the slopes of Pine Mountain in 2004.[3] The specific epithet (venusta) means "charming" or "beautiful".[4]

Distribution

Cassinia venusta is restricted to a small area near the New South Wales - Victoria border where it grows in forest among granite boulders at altitudes between .

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Cassinia venusta . Royal Botanic Garden Sydney . 2 July 2021.
  2. Web site: Ohlsen . Daniel . Stajsic . Val . Cassinia venusta . Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria . 1 July 2021.
  3. Web site: Cassinia venusta . Australian Plant Name Index. 2 July 2021.
  4. Book: Sharr . Francis Aubi . George . Alex . Western Australian Plant Names and Their Meanings . 2019 . Four Gables Press . Kardinya, WA . 9780958034180 . 334 . 3rd.