Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Podolepis robusta
Common name
Mountain lettuce, Alpine podolepis, Cattleman's lettuce
Family
Asteraceae
Where found
Grassland, herbfields, and heath. Above the treeline, or below the treeline where associated with cold air drainage hollows. Altitude about 1,200-1,920 m.. Kosciuszko National Park, the mountains to the north, and ACT.
Grassy woodland in drainage depressions, and in disturbed sites in rocky areas. Western edge of the ranges south east of Cooma.
Where Podolepis laciniata and Podolepis robusta occur near each other, it is usually at higher altitudes than Podolepis laciniata
Notes
Perennial herb to 1 m high, with multiple shoots arising from the basal rosette. Stems cobwebby-cottony to woolly. Basal leaves 4–20 cm long, 15–50 mm wide, hairless, light to bright green, rarely moderately to densely white-woolly, tips blunt to broadly pointed. Stem leaves alternating up the stems, becoming progressively smaller up the stems, woolly, tips pointed. Strongly wavy hairs absent from the leaf surfaces. Flower heads with yellow to orange 30–40 'petals' 9–13 mm long, tips with 3–5 teeth each to 2 mm long;, and yellow centres with many florets. Flower heads 25–40 mm in diameter, in narrow to loose clusters of 3–11.
All native plants on unleased land in the ACT are protected.
PlantNET description: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Podolepis~robusta (accessed 1 April 2021)
Description partly based on Frood, D. (2015), Description of a new species allied to Podolepis robusta (Asteraceae: Gnaphalieae) from the south-eastern Australian Alps. Muelleria 33: 63-65, Figs 1b, 3
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