Citation: DC., Prod. 6:159 (1838).

Synonymy: Not Applicable

Common name: Grey wrinklewort.

Description:
Erect branched perennial herb with woody lower branches, 25-50 cm tall; stems and branches with a sparse to dense vestiture of woolly-cobwebby hairs, sometimes sparser distally; leaves variable, oblanceolate to linear or linear-lanceolate, flat or with recurved margins, acute to apiculate, sessile, mostly 2-8 cm long, 1.5-10 cm wide (on lower parts sometimes up to 14 cm x 20 mm), with sparse to dense vestiture of woolly-cobwebby hairs on both sides.

Capitula on distantly scaly peduncles, usually 1-4 cm long, in a rather lax irregular terminal few- to many-flowered corymbs, rarely solitary when peduncle up to 15 cm long, broadly hemispherical, 6-10 mm long and 8-20 mm diam.; involucral bracts 7-9-seriate; outer bracts wholly scarious, stramineous to golden-brown, semitransparent, transversely wrinkled, linear-lanceolate, glabrous, with ciliate margins (the cilia in length about a fifth of the width of the bracts); inner bracts with laminae similar to outer bracts and with broad-linear subherbaceous glandular-pubescent claws; florets numerous, all bisexual, exceeding the involucre by 2-3 mm; corolla bright-yellow, narrowly tubular in the lower half, in the upper half abruptly dilated; anthers and style much exserted from the corolla.

Achenes narrowly obovoid, angular, with a slightly oblique truncate summit, dark-brown, papillose all over; pappus of 5-7 broadly spathulate white to creamy entire scales, subequal to the achene and a third to a half as long as the corolla.

Published illustration: Cunningham et al. (1982) Plants of western New South Wales, p. 702.

Distribution:  Occurs in a wide range of situations, usually on red sand or sandy loam soils, often along watercourses and on flood plains but also in treeless chenopod shrubland on open plains and tablelands.   All mainland States. Conservation status: native Flowering time: winter and spring but especially July — Oct.

SA Distribution Map based on current data relating to specimens held in the State Herbarium of South Australia

Biology: A very variable species requiring further taxonomic attention. Reliable characters distinguishing a densely tomentose form, with large capitula solitary or in few-flowered corymbs, especially frequent in the north-east around Innamincka, have not been found.

Author: Not yet available