Plants of South Eastern New South Wales
Stuartina muelleri
Common name
Spoon cudweed
Family
Asteraceae
Where found
Dry forest, woodland, grassy areas, and rocky hillsides. Tablelands, ACT, and Western Slopes. Occasional in Kosciuszko National Park.
Notes
Annual herb to 0.3 m tall or prostrate. Stems hairy. Leaves alternating up the stems and in clusters or whorls under the flower heads, 0.2-3.5 cm long, 3-14 mm wide, upper surface green and hairless, lower surface hairy, margins usually wavy, bases stem clasping, tips blunt, usually with an abrupt flexible point. Individual flower heads green to brown, with 5-6 florets, 0 petals, in stemless spherical to hemispherical clusters of about 5–30 heads (that look like single flower heads) 3-8 mm in diameter. Tips of the bracts appressed to the flower heads have short dark brownish curved-back points not extending from the mid-rib. Flowers Spring.
VICFLORA describes the clusters of flower heads as compound heads. (accessed 19 March, 2021)
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=Stuartina~muelleri (accessed 19 March, 2021)
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