Olearia arida

Olearia arida is upright shrub with spreading branches and clusters of white flowers.

Olearia arida
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Asterids
Order:	Asterales
Family:	Asteraceae
Tribe:	Asteraceae
Genus:	Olearia
Species:	O. arida
Binomial name
Olearia arida E.Pritz.[1]

Description

Olearia arida is an upright shrub with a single woody stem or a spreading habit 0.3–2 m (0.98–6.6 ft) high covered densely with flattened short soft matted hairs. The sessile leaves are long and narrow 7–20 mm (0.28–0.79 in) long and 1–2.5 mm (0.039–0.098 in) 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 5 mm (0.20 in) long. The flower centre is yellow, blooms appear from July to September. The smooth, dry one-seeded needle-shaped fruit are about 2 mm (0.079 in) long with fine longitudinal lines.[2][3]

Taxonomy and naming

Olearia arida was described in 1918 by Ernst Pritzel and published in Repertorium Specierum Novarum Regni Vegetabilis.[1] The specific epithet (arida) is derived from the Latin word aridus meaning "dry".[4]

Distribution and habitat

This species grows on sand hills in South Australia and Western Australia.[2]

References

1. "Olearia arida". APC. Retrieved 4 June 2019.
2. "Olearia arida". eFloraSA. Department of Water & Environment, South Australia. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
3. "Olearia arida". FloraBase Western Australia. W.A Government. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
4. Brown, Roland Wilbur (1956). The Composition of Scientific Words. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press. p. 100.