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Electronic Flora of South Australia genus Fact Sheet

Family: Asteraceae
Craspedia

Citation: Forster f., Fl. Inul. Aust. Prod. 58 (1786).

Derivation: Greek kraspedon, a hem or border; referring to the woolly fringes on the leaves of the type species.

Synonymy: Not Applicable

Common name: Billybuttons.

Description:
Annual and perennial herbs with cobwebby non-glandular hairs; stems terete, leafy; leaves mostly cauline, alternate, flat, entire.

Inflorescence a terminal pedunculate compound head of numerous capitula aggregated on an elongated or rounded woolly general receptacle, globular to ellipsoid; common involucre shorter than capitula, often obscured or absent; capitula small, homogamous, discoid, each subtended by a scarious or partly herbaceous bract; capitular involucral bracts few, scarious-hyaline, oblanceolate to oblong, glabrous, caducous; receptacle with hyaline scales; florets 3-10, tubular, bisexual, 5-merous; corolla distally campanulate, longer than the bracts, with equal acute lobes, yellow; anthers tailed at the base with triangular apical appendages; style branches flattened, linear-oblong, truncate, glabrous.

Achenes terete, obovoid, usually sericeous; pappus of uniseriate plumose bristles thickened in the lower part.

Distribution:  About 12 species in Australia and New Zealand.

Biology: No text

Key to Species:
1. Leaves with 3 prominent longitudinal veins
C. globosa 3.
1. Leaves with a single longitudinal vein
 
2. Compound heads globose; involucral bracts and pappus bristles whitish
C. glauca 2.
2. Compound heads ovoid; involucral bracts and pappus bristles yellow-tipped
 
3. Plant white-woolly; common involucre and capitulum-subtending bracts concealed
C. chrysantha 1.
3. Plant green, pubescent; common involucre and capitulum-subtending bracts visible in young heads
C. pleiocephala 4.

Author: Not yet available


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