Botanical art
Prior names
Helipterum pterochaetum
Helichrysum pterochaetum
Common names
Perennial Sunray
Shrub Everlasting
Etymology
Chrysocephalum from the Greek 'chryso' meaning golden and 'cephalus' meaning a head, referring to the golden flower heads. Pterochaetum from the Greek 'pteron' meaning wing or feather and 'chaite' meaning bristle, referring to the feather-like pappus attached to the seed.
Distribution and status
Found in northern South Australia growing in sand among rocks, in or near dry creek beds, sandy gibber and rocky hill slopes. Also found in Western Australia, Northern Territory, Queensland and New South Wales. Native. Common in South Australia. Common in the other States.
Herbarium regions: North Western, Lake Eyre, Nullarbor, Gairdner-Torrens, Flinders Ranges, Eastern, Eyre Peninsula, South Eastern
AVH map: SA distribution map (external link)
Plant description
Rigid bushy perennial herb to 40 cm tall, or subshrub with a woody stock or lower woody branches. Branches white-felty with somewhat matted woolly-cobwebby hairs. Leaves linear to linear-oblanceolate with recurved margins, a blunt apex and a broadly sessile base, mostly to 30 mm long and 1.5 mm wide; glandular-scabrid on both sides, sometimes with scattered woolly hairs. Flower-heads in clusters of 3-8 golden-brown to brown daisy-heads. Flowering between June and October. Fruits are pale brown fluffy daisy-head. Seeds are brown ovoid seed to 1 mm long and 0.5 mm wide, covered in small tubercules and with long pappus. Seed embryo type is spatulate.
Seed collection and propagation
Collect seeds between November and March. Collect whole heads that are brown and fluffy or collect just the seeds by plucking it off with your fingers. Mature seeds are easily removed. Place the heads in a tray for a week to dry. Then pluck the seeds from the head with your finders. Viable seeds will be fat and brown. Store the seeds with a desiccant such as dried silica beads or dry rice, in an air tight container in a cool and dry place. From one collection, the seed viability was high, at 100%. Seeds are non-dormant, viable seed should germinate readily.
| Location | No. of seeds (weight grams) | Number of plants | Date collected | Collection number Collection location | Date stored | % Viability | Storage temperature |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BGA | 9,500 (1.49 g) | 50+ | 11-Mar-2007 | RJB70940 Gairdner-Torrens | 19-Sep-2008 | 100% | -18°C |
Number of plants: This is the number of plants from which the seeds were collected.
Collection location: The Herbarium of South Australia's region name.
% Viability: Percentage of filled healthy seeds determined by a cut test or x-ray.