Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Scorzonera laciniata

Flower head. Photographer Richard Spellenberg, New Trinidad

Flower head. Photographer Richard Spellenberg, New Trinidad

Line drawings (var. calcitrapifolia). d. plant; seed; leaf. E Beckett, E., University of Oxford, © 2021 Royal Botanic Gardens Board, Melbourne, Vic

Line drawing (var. laciniata).  e. leaf. E Beckett, E., University of Oxford, © 2021 Royal Botanic Gardens Board, Melbourne, Vic

Common name

Scorzonera

Family

Asteraceae

Where found

Pastures, roadsides, and disturbed sites. Western Slopes and tablelands. Rarely elsewhere.

Nearly all records are of var. calcitrapifolia. One record of var. laciniata east of West Wyalong, and another near Bungarby, south of Cooma.

Notes

Introduced biennial herb to 0.7 m tall, with a large taproot. Hairless to hairy. Stems hollow, striate. Basal leaves in a rosette, 3-20 cm long, 5-80 mm wide, hairy or hairless to glaucous, margins dissected, sometimes entire, tips sometimes with a mucro. Stem leaves mostly linear, to 10 cm long, margins entire to deeply dissected. Flower heads with many yellow 'petals' each 8–12 mm long. Flower heads below the ‘petals’ cylindrical, 4–40 mm long, about 2-7 mm in diameter. Flower heads single or in few flowered loose clusters at the tops of the stems.

var. calcitrapifolia:  Leaves broader than linear. Dissected leaves with pointed segments much broader than linear, the terminal lobe much larger than the lateral lobes.

var. laciniata:  Leaves linear. Dissected leaves, if present, with more or less linear segments, the terminal lobe similar in size to the lateral lobes.

PlantNET description with line drawings and photos of dried specimens:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Scorzonera~laciniata (accessed 6 February, 2021)