Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Craspedia leucantha
Common name
A Billy-buttons
Family
Asteraceae
Where found
Seepage areas on stony slopes and creek banks, and below semi-permanent snow patches. Often in shallow running water. Kosciuszko National Park.
Notes
Lanky herb to 0.5 m high, with the fibrous remains of old leaves at the base. Flower stalks brown to purple-red, hairless, or loosely woolly below the flower head. Basal leaves 4–25 cm long, 5–25 mm wide, closely overlapping and cream to red at the base. Upper leaves alternating up the stems, to 13 cm long, 3–20 mm wide, becoming smaller up the stems and grading into stem-clasping bracts. Leaves bright green, shining, hairless or sparsely hairy, the margins more or less woolly. Flower heads creamy-white, 10–25 mm in diameter, with 20–50 partial heads; partial heads with 4–8 florets with 0 petals. Flower heads hemispherical to globular, single. Flowering: summer.
Protected NSW.
PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Craspedia~leucantha (accessed 7 January, 2021)
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