Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Bedfordia arborescens

Flower heads and leaves, showing the back of one leaf. Australian Plant Image Index, photographer Murray Fagg, Tallaganda State Forest west of Braidwood.

Flowers and leaves Photographer Don Wood, Mumbulla State Forest north of Bega

Shrub. Photographer John Tann, SE Forests National Park

Common name

Blanket Leaf, Flannel Leaf, Blanket Bush

Family

Asteraceae

Where found

Margins of rainforest and in wet forest, woodland, wet gullies and along streams. Western Slopes south from Tumut. Kosciuszko National Park, the mountains to the north, and ACT. Tablelands, ranges and coast south from Budawang National Park.

Notes

Shrub or small tree to 8 m tall. Bark dark grey, fissured, stringy to flaky. Stems densely white hairy. Leaves alternating up the stems, 5–25 cm long, 15–50 mm wide, upper surface green and shiny, lower surface covered in dense white to fawn blanket-like hairs, tips rounded to pointed, margins more or less entire to scalloped. Flower heads 3-5 mm in diameter, with 10-20 florets 5-7 mm long, 0 petals. 6-9 whitish hairy bracts surrounding the flower heads. Florets bright orange when the flowers first open, soon fading to yellow. Flower heads in dense branched clusters. Flowering: spring to summer.

All native plants on unleased land in the ACT are protected.

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Bedfordia~arborescens (accessed 4 January, 2021)