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.
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.[1] [2]
This species was first described in 1838 as Helichrysum molle by Augustin Pyramus de Candolle from an unpublished description by Allan Cunningham.[3] In 1992 Paul G. Wilson changed the name to Leucochrysum molle and the description was published in Nuytsia.[4] [5] The specific epithet (molle) means "soft".[6]
Hoary sunray grows on a variety of soil types in woodlands, grasslands and sandplains in New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and Victoria.[1] [2]