Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Cassinia monticola
Common name
Golden Cassinia
Family
Asteraceae
Where found
Alpine and subalpine woodland, shrubland, herbfields, and grassland, above 1200m. Both sides of the border on the western edge of the ACT. Kosciuszko National Park.
Notes
Spreading shrub to 2.0 m high. Older branches with dark grey to purplish-black bark, vertically grooved, shed from the oldest stems in ribbons. Young stems usually reddish-purple, sparsely to moderately hairy or sticky hairy. Leaves alternating up the stems, 1–4 cm long, 1–4 mm wide, margins rolled down but usually not to the midrib, upper surface dark glossy green or dull grey/blue-green, more or less sticky, lower surface with a dense white tomentum and a hairless green midrib, tips pointed, margins rolled down but usually not reachng the midrib. Flower heads more or less bronze when young, pale straw-coloured to greenish cream when older, shiny, 4–6 mm long, 1.5 mm in diameter or less, with 4–6 creamy-white florets, in dense, round-topped clusters 10-80 mm in diameter, with several hundred flower heads. Flowering: January – March.
The name Cassinia uncata was previously misapplied to this species.
All native plants on unleased land in the ACT are protected.
Rare Vic.
PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Cassinia~monticola (accessed 7 January, 2021)
Much of the decription above is base on Orchard, A.E. (2004), A revision of Cassinia (Asteraceae: Gnaphalieae) in Australia. 2. Sections Complanatae and Venustae. Australian Systematic Botany 17(6): 526-530, Figs 5 (map), 11, 12
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