Craspedia

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Craspedia
Craspedia canens.jpg
Craspedia canens
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
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Genus:
Craspedia

Type species
Craspedia uniflora
Species

see list

Diversity
About 20 species
Synonyms [2]
Botanical illustration (1800) Voyage in search of La Perouse - performed by order of the Constituent Assembly, during the years 1791, 1792, 1793, and 1794 (1800) (14775539791).jpg
Botanical illustration (1800)

Craspedia is a genus of flowering plants in the daisy family commonly known as billy buttons and woollyheads. They are native to Australia and New Zealand where they grow in a variety of habitats from sea level to the Alps. The genus is found in every state of Australia except the Northern Territory. In New Zealand, Craspedia is found from East Cape on the North Island south to Stewart Island. It also occurs on Campbell Island and the Chatham Islands.

Contents

Description

Craspedia are rosette-forming herbs with compound capitula borne on erect, unbranched scapes. The capitula are hemispherical to spherical heads of tiny flowers. Most species are perennial; one species is recorded as an annual ( Craspedia haplorrhiza ). The leaves have considerable variation in form, ranging in colour from white to green, and are often covered in fine hairs.

A closely related genus is Pycnosorus , also often called billy buttons. The genera can be distinguished by the attachment of individual flower heads to the compound heads; in Pycnosorus they are directly attached, and in Craspedia they arise on small stalks. [3] The two genera may actually be monophyletic. [4]

Taxonomy

The genus Craspedia was first described by Johann Georg Adam Forster in 1786. [5] It is placed within the family Asteraceae, tribe Gnaphalieae, with about 23 species. [6] [7] The original description included only one species, Craspedia uniflora . Early authors included Pycnosorus, which was later segregated. [8] Molecular phylogeny suggested the two genera were sister clades, [7] [8] but there is some evidence that the two genera may in fact be monophyletic. [4]

List of species

According to the Global Compositae Checklist [2]

Etymology

The genus is named for the Greek Kraspedon, meaning an edge, hem or border, because of the woolly fringes of the leaves belonging to the type species. [9]

Biogeography and evolution

There are two centres of diversity in Craspedia, both associated with upland areas. One of these is in the alpine and subalpine zone of Kosciuszko National Park in Australia, where seven species are found. The other centre is a larger area on the northwestern South Island of New Zealand, where several species grow. [7]

Ecology

Species of Craspedia are found in a wide range of habitats from coastal to alpine and are generally plants of open areas, sometimes ruderal. Observations of some Australian species suggest they re-establish well after fire. In Australia Craspedia are commonly found growing in forest habitat, whereas in New Zealand they are generally excluded from closed Nothofagus forests. Craspedia species may occur in dense, widespread populations in mainland Australia, but generally not in New Zealand or Tasmania. Most Australian non-alpine species are found in native grasslands and shrublands associated with Eucalyptus forests. Alpine species occur in Tasmania. In New Zealand, species can be found on coastal sand dunes, wetlands, fellfields, and greywacke rock scree.

Craspedia grow in a wide range of soil types, including sands, gravels, clays, and loams, which are derived from different geologies across a broad rainfall gradient. They appear to be intolerant only of very infertile and acidic soils. This is apparent in the absence of Craspedia from parts of western Tasmania which are characterised by soils derived from pre-Cambrian quartzose rock. These sandy, infertile soils are dominated by a wet heath ecosystem known as buttongrass moorland.

Cultivation

Craspedia is hardy to USDA zones 9–11. It can be propagated by cutting a rosette from a clump, but generally seed is a more reliable and rapid method. Seeds will sprout in days on germination media. Plants are generally self-fertile. The alpine species need regular water and excellent drainage. All species prefer cool roots; surrounding the plants with rock, gravel, or sand provides better conditions. A plant will start growing as a single rosette, and each rosette generally produces one flower stalk. [10] Cultivars include ‘Golf Beauty’. [11] [12]

Uses

Craspedia is grown both as an ornamental garden plant, and floriculture for cut flowers and floral arrangements, including dried flowers. [13] [10] [12] Africa is a source of exports. [14]

Related Research Articles

<i>Leptospermum</i> genus of plants

Leptospermum is a genus of shrubs and small trees in the myrtle family Myrtaceae commonly known as tea trees, although this name is sometimes also used for some species of Melaleuca. Most species are endemic to Australia, with the greatest diversity in the south of the continent but some are native to other parts of the world, including New Zealand and Southeast Asia. Leptospermums all have five conspicuous petals and five groups of stamens which alternate with the petals. There is a single style in the centre of the flower and the fruit is a woody capsule. The first formal description of a leptospermum was published in 1776 by the German botanists Johann Reinhold Forster and his son Johann Georg Adam Forster, but an unambiguous definition of individual species in the genus was not achieved until 1979. Leptospermums grow in a wide range of habitats but are most commonly found in moist, low-nutrient soils. They have important uses in horticulture, in the production of honey and in floristry.

<i>Cardamine</i> genus of flowering plants in the cabbage family Brassicaceae

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<i>Pycnosorus</i> genus of plants

Pycnosorus is a genus of six species of plants in the daisy family Asteraceae. Commonly known as billy buttons or drumsticks, they are annual or perennial herbs or small shrubs with a cylindrical to spherical head of up to 200 daisy-like "flowers". Each "flower" is a pseudanthium consisting of between three and eight florets surrounded by bracts. The petals are joined to form a small tube and the florets with their surrounding bracts are yellow or golden-yellow.

<i>Xerochrysum bracteatum</i> A flowering plant in the family Asteraceae native to Australia

Xerochrysum bracteatum, commonly known as the golden everlasting or strawflower, is a flowering plant in the family Asteraceae native to Australia. Described by Étienne Pierre Ventenat in 1803, it was known as Helichrysum bracteatum for many years before being transferred to a new genus Xerochrysum in 1990. It grows as a woody or herbaceous perennial or annual shrub up to a metre (3 ft) tall with green or grey leafy foliage. Golden yellow or white flower heads are produced from spring to autumn; their distinctive feature is the papery bracts that resemble petals. The species is widespread, growing in a variety of habitats across the country, from rainforest margins to deserts and subalpine areas. The golden everlasting serves as food for various larvae of lepidopterans, and adult butterflies, hoverflies, native bees, small beetles, and grasshoppers visit the flower heads.

Haloragaceae Family of flowering plants in the Eudicot order Saxifragales

Haloragaceae is a eudicot flowering plant family in the order Saxifragales, based on the phylogenetic APG system. In the Cronquist system, it was included in the order Haloragales.

<i>Philotheca</i> genus of plants

Philotheca is a genus of about fifty species of flowering plant in the family Rutaceae. Plants in this genus are shrubs with simple leaves arranged alternately along the stems, with flowers that usually have five sepals, five petals and ten stamens that curve inwards over the ovary. All species are endemic to Australia and there are species in every state, but not the Northern Territory.

<i>Hovea</i> genus of plants

Hovea is a genus of perennial shrubs which are native to Australia. Species from this genus are occasionally cultivated as ornamental plants. The genus name honours Anton Pantaleon Hove, a Polish plant collector.

<i>Brachyscome</i> genus of plants

Brachyscome is a genus of flowering plants in the aster family, Asteraceae. Most are endemic to Australia, and a few occur in New Zealand and New Guinea.

<i>Brachyglottis</i> genus of plants

Brachyglottis is a genus of flowering plants in the aster family, Asteraceae. The genus was erected on November 29, 1775, by Johann Reinhold Forster and Georg Forster. The name was derived from the Greek brachus ("short") and glottis a reference to the size of the ray florets.

<i>Helichrysum luteoalbum</i> species of plant

Helichrysum luteoalbum is commonly known as Jersey cudweed or cat's paw.

<i>Olearia phlogopappa</i> species of plant

Olearia phlogopappa commonly known as the dusty daisy-bush or alpine daisy-bush is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae that is commonly found in eastern New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania. It is a small shrub with greyish-green foliage, daisy-like flowers in white, pink or mauve that can be seen from spring to late summer.

<i>Dichondra repens</i> Species of plant

Dichondra repens is a small, prostrate, herbaceous plant native to New Zealand and many parts of Australia. It is occasionally known as kidney weed in Australia and as Mercury Bay weed in New Zealand. Most commonly called dichondra in Australia.

<i>Euchiton</i> genus of plants

Euchiton is a genus of flowering plants in the daisy family. They are native to Australasia and the Pacific. Some have been introduced far outside their native ranges.

<i>Coronidium scorpioides</i> species of plant

Coronidium scorpioides, commonly known as the button everlasting, is a perennial herbaceous shrub in the family Asteraceae found in Australia. Previously known as Helichrysum scorpioides, it was placed in the newly described genus Coronidium in 2008.

<i>Senecio pectinatus</i> species of plant

Senecio pectinatus, commonly known as alpine groundsel, is a species of flowering plant in the aster family. The species occurs in alpine areas of south-eastern Australia in peat-based soils. It has divided leaves forming a basal rosette and produces a single yellow flower head on a stalk up to 20 cm high.

<i>Ozothamnus alpinus</i> species of plant

Ozothamnus alpinus, commonly known as alpine everlasting, is a shrub in the family Asteraceae. It is native to alpine and subalpine areas in the states of New South Wales and Victoria in Australia.

<i>Craspedia variabilis</i> species of plant

Craspedia variabilis, commonly known as billy buttons is an erect annual or perennial herb which occurs in all mainland states of Australia except for the Northern Territory and in a wide range of habitats in temperate zones but not in alpine areas.

Ozothamnus ledifolius species of plant

Ozothamnus ledifolius is a shrub, from the family Asteraceae and one of 54 species from the genus Ozothamnus. Harold Frederick Comber (1897–1969), an English horticulturist and plant collector, introduced Ozothamnus ledifolius in 1929 on mountains of Tasmania above 2500 ft. high from the seeds collected from 4000 ft. height.

Paul Irwin Forster obtained his doctorate in 2004 with his thesis: The pursuit of plants : studies on the systematics, ecology and chemistry of the vascular flora of Australia and related regions, from the University of Queensland.

Joy Thompson was an Australian botanist. Her main research areas were taxonomy and Myrtaceae.

References

  1. TPL 2013.
  2. 1 2 Flann 2009.
  3. Everett & Doust 2019.
  4. 1 2 Schmidt-Lebuhn 2013.
  5. Forster 1786.
  6. Tropicos 2019.
  7. 1 2 3 Ford et al 2007.
  8. 1 2 Rozefelds et al 2011.
  9. BGSA 2018.
  10. 1 2 BGW 2015.
  11. Sparks 2017.
  12. 1 2 GITS 2017.
  13. Interflora 2019.
  14. USDA 2007.

Bibliography

Articles and books

  • Ford, Kerry A.; Ward, Josephine M.; Smissen, Rob D.; Wagstaff, Steven J.; Breitwieser, Ilse (August 2007). "Phylogeny and Biogeography of Craspedia (Asteraceae: Gnaphalieae) Based on ITS, ETS and psbA-trnH Sequence Data". Taxon . 56 (3): 783–794. doi:10.2307/25065861. JSTOR   25065861.
  • Forster, Johann Georg Adam (1786). "Craspedia". Florulae insularum Australium: prodromus (Fl.Ins.Austr.). Gottingae: Joann. Christian Dietrich. p. 58.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Rozefelds, Andrew C.; Buchanan, Alex M.; Ford, Kerry A. (June 2011). "New Species Of Craspedia (Asteraceae: Gnaphalieae) From Tasmania And Determination Of The Identity Of C. Macrocephala Hook" (PDF). Kanunnah. 4: 93–116.
  • Schmidt-Lebuhn, Alexander N. (2013). "Reciprocal monophyly of Craspedia and Pycnosorus (Asteraceae, Gnaphalieae) and the problems of using ribosomal DNA at the lowest taxonomic levels". Australian Systematic Botany . 26 (3): 233. doi:10.1071/SB13018.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Schmidt-Lebuhn, Alexander N.; Milner, Kirsty V. (2013). "A quantitative study of morphology in Australian Craspedia (Asteraceae, Gnaphalieae)". Australian Systematic Botany . 26 (3): 238. doi:10.1071/SB13017.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

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