Olearia xerophila



Olearia xerophila is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae and is endemic northern Australia. It is an erect subshrub with elliptic to broadly elliptic leaves and violet, blue or mauve and yellow, daisy-like inflorescences.

Description
Olearia xerophila is an erect, sticky subshrub that typically grows to a height of up to 1 m, and has reddish or yellowish-brown stems when young. Its leaves are elliptic to broadly elliptic, 25–65 mm long and 7–22 mm wide on a petiole 5–18 mm long with irregular serrations on the edges. The heads or daisy-like "flowers" are arranged in corymbs on a peduncle up to 70 mm long, each head 20–30 mm in diameter with a broadly top-shaped to hemispherical involucre at the base. Each head has 20 to 50 violet, blue or mauve ray florets, the ligule 7.5–12 mm long, surrounding 25 to 52 yellow disc florets. Flowering mainly occurs from June to September and the fruit is a flattened oval achene 2.0–2.2 mm long, the pappus with 20 to 30 bristles.

Taxonomy
This daisy was first formally described in 1858 by Ferdinand von Mueller who gave it the name Eurybia xerophila in Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae from specimens collected near the Burdekin River. In 1867 George Bentham changed the name to Olearia xerophila in Flora Australiensis. The specific epithet (xerophila) means "dry-loving".

Distribution and habitat
Olearia xerophila grows in shrubland or woodland in crevices on rocky hills, scree slopes, gorges or creek beds in the Gascoyne, Murchison and Pilbara bioregions of Western Australia and in northern Queensland.