Calocephalus citreus

Calocephalus lacteus, commonly known as lemon beauty-heads, is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. It has yellow cylindrical shaped flowers and grey stems and grows in the eastern states of Australia

Description
Calocephalus citreus is a perennial herb with upright, slender, light grey, fuzzy, slightly angular stems growing to about 15-60 cm high. The leaves are arranged usually opposite, linear to lance-shaped, mostly 10-20 mm long, 1-2 mm wide and covered with short, matted, dense hairs and prominent veins. The heads are solitary, oblong to globose shaped, about 0.4-2 cm long, lemon-coloured in bud, bright yellow in flower. The 8-11 bracts are flat, conduplicate, 1.9-3.4 mm long with 2-3 florets per head. Flowering occurs from September to March and the fruit is a cypsela 0.7-0.85 mm long, brown, and the upper surface covered in fine, feathery bristles.

Taxonomy and naming
Calocephalus citreus was first formally described in 1832 by Christian Friedrich Lessing and the description was published in Synopsis Generum Compositarum. The specific epithet (citreus) means "lemon-coloured".

Distribution and habitat
Lemon beauty-heads grows in low-lying areas in herbfields, dry forest and grassy woodland in eastern states of Australia and the Australian Capital Territory.