Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Brachyscome microcarpa

Flowers and leaves. Australian Plant Image Index, photographer Murray Fagg, Australian National Botanic Gardens, Canberra, ACT

Common name

Forest Daisy

Family

Asteraceae

Where found

Forest, woodland, and rocky outcrops. North of Crookwell. Western Slopes, tablelands, and the western edge of the ranges.

Notes

Perennial, possibly annual, herb to 0.58 m high, sprawling to weakly erect. Scapes sticky hairy to almost hairless. Leaves alternating up the stems, sometimes basal, uppermost leaves usually paired. Leaves 1.5-13 cm long, 5-25 mm wide, lobed with linear lobes to 0.8 cm long, or the margins scalloped, tips blunt. Flower heads with 34-47 'petals'. 'Petals' white, mauve to bluish, or pink, 3.5-8.1 mm long. Centres yellow, 3.5–8 mm in diameter. Bracts appressed to the flower heads 13-20. Flowering: most of the year.

Definite identification of most species of Brachyscome depends on microscopic examination of the seeds.

PlantNET description with line drawings and photo of dried specimen:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Brachyscome~microcarpa   (accessed 6 January, 2021)

Description partly based on:  Short, P.S. (2014), A taxonomic review of Brachyscome Cass. s.lat. (Asteraceae: Astereae), including description of a new genus, Roebuckia, new species and new infraspecific taxa. Journal of the Adelaide Botanic Gardens 28: 129-133