Olearia arida is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae and is endemic to inland western Australia. It is upright shrub with spreading branches and clusters of white flowers.
Olearia arida is an upright shrub with a single woody stem or a spreading habit NaNsigfig=2NaNsigfig=2 high covered densely with flattened short soft matted hairs. The sessile leaves are long and narrow NaNsigfig=2NaNsigfig=2 long and NaNsigfig=2NaNsigfig=2 wide, broadening to a rounded apex. The upper-side of leaves are smooth and sticky, the under-side a woolly white with an obvious mid-vein with a rolled edge and glands. The cluster of 10-15 white flowers are on a short stem in leaf axils. The flower bracts are arranged in 3 rows, bell-shaped, smooth, pale, sticky, often purplish and broader at the apex and about 5sigfig=2NaNsigfig=2 long. The flower centre is yellow, blooms appear from July to September. The smooth, dry one-seeded needle-shaped fruit are about 2sigfig=2NaNsigfig=2 long with fine longitudinal lines.[1]
Olearia arida was described in 1918 by Ernst Pritzel and published in Repertorium Specierum Novarum Regni Vegetabilis. The specific epithet (arida) is derived from the Latin word aridus meaning "dry".[2]
This species grows on sand hills in the Coolgardie, Great Victoria Desert and Murchison biogeographic regions of Western Australia, in the far north-west of South Australia and the far south-west of the Northern Territory.[1] [3]
This daisy is listed as "Priority Four" in Western Australia, by the Government of Western Australia Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions, meaning that it is rare or near threatened.[4]