Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Cyanthillium cinereum
Common name
Vernonia, Ironweed
Family
Asteraceae
Where found
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.
Notes
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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