Brachyscome bellidioides



Brachyscome bellidioides is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae and is endemic to the southwest of Western Australia. It is an annual herb with linear leaves and yellow and white daisy-like flowers.

Description
Brachyscome bellidioides is a glabrous annual herb that typically grows to a height of 50-180 mm tall. The leaves are mostly at, or near the base of the plant, linear to narrowly lance-shaped or narrowly elliptic, 4–30 mm long and 0.8–2.2 mm wide with one or two short teeth or lobes. The heads or daisy-like "flowers" have about 15 thin, leaf-like involucral bracts at the base, each head with about 15 to 26 white ray florets, the ligule 5–18 mm long and 0.8–1.3 mm wide, surrounding yellow disc florets. Flowering occurs from August to October and the fruit is a cypsela about 1.0–1.4 mm long.

Taxonomy and naming
Brachyscome bellidioides was first formally described in 1845 by Joachim Steetz in Lehmann's Plantae Preissianae. The specific epithet (bellidioides) means Bellis-like.

Distribution and habitat
This species of daisy usually grows on sand in heathland and is found in near-coastal areas between Jurien Bay and King George Sound in the Jarrah Forest, Swan Coastal Plain and Warren bioregions of south-western Western Australia.

Conservation status
Brachyscome bellidioides is listed as "not threatened" by the Government of Western Australia Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.