Centratherum punctatum Cass. subsp. punctatum

Cassini, A.H.G. de (1817) Dictionnaire des Sciences Naturelles Ed.2 7: 384.

Brazilian button Flower

Stems erect, 10-70 cm tall.

Leaf blades about 15-45 x 13-25 mm, attenuate at the base, petioles short, difficult to distinguish from the leaf base. Leaf blades aromatic when crushed, underside clothed in hairs, upper surface almost glabrous.

Flower heads about 2 cm diam, subtended by about 10 green leaf-like bracts. Individual flowers about 3-4 mm diam. Calyx lobes, i.e. pappus, about 2 mm long, hairy. Corolla about 10-11 mm long, tube about 8 mm long, lobes about 2-3 mm long, purple in colour. Anthers fused together, anthers about 2 mm long, filaments about 2 mm long. Pollen white. Ovary about 1 mm long, longitudinally ribbed. Style about 9 mm long. Ovule solitary.

Fruits produced in dense heads more than 1.5 cm diam., each fruit subtended by a hairy bract about 2 mm long. Individual fruits 2-2.25 mm long, longitudinally ribbed. Embryo white.

Features not available.

An introduced species. Occurs in NT, CYP, NEQ, CEQ and south into north-eastern New South Wales. Altitudinal range from 400-740 m. Found on the edges of vine forest and rainforest and in some drier types of open forest and woodland.

Weed of disturbed places.