Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Stuartina hamata
Common name
Hooked cudweed, Prickly cudweed
Family
Asteraceae
Where found
Dry forest, woodland, grassy areas, and rocky hillsides. ACT. Tablelands between the Hume Highway and the Queanbeyan district. Occasionally elsewhere.
Notes
Annual herb to 0.2 m tall or prostrate. Stems hairy. Leaves alternating up the stems, or reduced to a cluster or whorl under and within the flower heads, 0.5-2 cm long, 2.5-12 mm wide, leaf blades round or almost round, upper surface green and sparsely hairy, lower surface hairy, margins flat or barely wavy, tips blunt, often with an abrupt flexible point. Upper leaves stem clasping. Flower heads with 5-6 yellowish florets, 0 petals, in spherical or oval to hemispherical stemless clusters of about 5–35 heads (that look like single flower heads) about 4–12 mm in diameter. Tips of the bracts appressed to the flower heads have rigid pale yellow hooked points extending from the midrib. Flowers Winter to Spring.
VICFLORA describes the clusters of flower heads as compound heads. (accessed 30 January 2021)
All native plants on unleased land in the ACT are protected.
Rare Vic.
PlantNET description with line drawings, photos, and description of dried plants: http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Stuartina~hamata (accessed 30 January 2021)
This identification key and fact sheets are available as a free mobile application:
