Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
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Cyanthillium cinereum
Vernonia, Ironweed
Asteraceae
Dry forest, woodland, grassland, and roadsides and other disturbed sites. Coast, ranges, and occasionally on the tablelands. Most records of this species pre-date the description of the varieties.
Var. cinereum: Sydney area and Blue Mountains. Rarely farther south.
Var. pinnatifolium: Sydney area and Blue Mountains.
Annual to perennial herbs to 1.2 m high. Stems ribbed, more or less hairless to densely hairy. Leaves alternating up the stems, 1–7 cm long, 3–35 mm wide, margins wavy and toothed to dissected or almost entire; upper surface green, dotted with glands, sparsely hairy, lower surface thinly to thickly hairy or almost hairless; uppermost leaves often stalkless and much smaller. Flower heads hemispherical to cylindrical, 5–10 mm in diameter below the florets. Florets purple or white, 2.5–5.5 mm long. Flowering: summer–autumn.
Was Vernonia cinerea.
Var. cinereum: Leaves wavy and toothed towards the tips, or irregularly toothed towards the tips to more or less entire.
Data deficient Vic.
Var. pinnatifolium: Leaves deeply dissected, with 3–6 mm long lobes.
PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Cyanthillium~cinereum (accessed 12 October, 2020)
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