Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Craspedia aurantia

Flowering plants (var. aurantia). Photographer Richard Hartland, Falls Creek, Vic

Flowering plants (var. aurantia). Australian Plant Image Index, photographer Murray Fagg, Kosciuszko National Park

Line drawings (var. aurantia). f. flowering plant; bract; leaf margin detail. M Moir, National Herbarium of Victoria, © 2021 Royal Botanic Gardens Board

Flower heads (var. jamesii). Australian Plant Image Index, photographer Murray Fagg, near Kiandra

Flowering plants (var. jamesii). Photographer Don Wood, Namadgi National park, ACT

Line drawings (var. jamesii). c. flowering plant; bract; leaf margin detail. M Moir, National Herbarium of Victoria, © 2021 Royal Botanic Gardens Board

Common name

Orange Billy-buttons

Family

Asteraceae

Where found

Dry forest, woodland, heath, grassland, and alpine herbfields. Kosciuszko National Park, the mountains to the north, ACT, the mountainous areas west of the ACT, and the Tindery Range east of the ACT. Rarely elsewhere.

Notes

Herb to 1 m high. Flower stalks yellowish or cream to straw-coloured to crimson or red-brown, hairy to sparsely hairy, sometimes sticky. Leaves sometimes limp, mainly basal, a few alternating up the stems. Basal leaves 2–20 cm long, 2–30 mm wide, surfaces evenly covered with hairs to sparsely hairy or hairless, occasionally sticky hairy, tips pointed. Upper leaves alternating up the stems, 0.5–12.5 cm long, 1–16 mm wide, similar, bases stem clasping. Flower heads yellow to orange brown, globular to hemispherical or more or less flattened hemispherical, 15–35 mm in diameter, with about 40–90 partial heads; partial heads with 5–12 florets with 0 petals. Flower heads single. Flowering: summer.

Occasionally hybridizes with Craspedia crocata.

Protected NSW.

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

Craspedia aurantia and Craspedia jamesii in PlantNET.

var.  aurantia:  Dry membranous of the bracts subtending the flower heads more or less equal around the bracts; flowers orange or sometimes yellow.

PlantNET description (as Craspedia aurantia):  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Craspedia~aurantia (accessed 30 April 2021)

var.  jamesii:  Dry membranous margin of the bracts subtending the flower heads wide in the basal part and very thin to absent in the apical part of the bracts, giving them a three-tipped appearance; flowers yellow or sometimes orange

Rare Vic.

PlantNET description (as Craspedia jamesii):  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Craspedia~jamesii  (accessed 30 April 2021)