Ptilotus macrocephalus

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Ptilotus macrocephalus
Ptilotus macrocephalus.jpg
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Order: Caryophyllales
Family: Amaranthaceae
Genus: Ptilotus
Species:
P. macrocephalus
Binomial name
Ptilotus macrocephalus
Synonyms [1]
List
    • Ptilotus pachocephalus(Moq.) F.Muell.
    • Trichinium angustifoliumMoq.
    • Trichinium macrocephalumR.Br.
    • Trichinium pachocephalumMoq.
    • Trichinium fusiformeauct. non R.Br.: Lindley, J. in Mitchell, T.L. (1848)
    • Ptilotus macrocephalusauct. non (R.Br.) Poir.: Palmer, J., Lally, T.R. & Miller, C.H. (2014)

Ptilotus macrocephalus, commonly known as green pussytails or featherheads, [2] is a species of flowering plant in the family Amaranthaceae and is endemic to Australia. It is a glabrous or slightly hairy perennial herb, with a woody taproot, linear to narrowly lance-shaped leaves and dense oblong to cylindrical spikes of yellowish green or silvery white flowers.

Contents

Description

Ptilotus macrocephalus is a glabrous or slightly hairy perennial herb with a woody taproot, that typically grows to a height of up to about 50 cm (20 in) high. Its leaves are linear to narrowly lance-shaped or narrowly egg-shaped, about 30–100 mm (1.2–3.9 in) long and 4–12 mm (0.16–0.47 in) wide and thickish and crowded near the base or forming a rosette. The flowers are yellowish green or silvery white and densely arranged in oblong to cylindrical spikes. There are straw-coloured, translucent, egg-shaped to lance-shaped bracts 11–20 mm (0.43–0.79 in) long and elliptic bracteoles shorter than the bracts. The perianth segments are 25–30 mm (0.98–1.18 in) long, the outer surface covered with longhairs apart from the glabrous tip, and the inner surface is glabrous. There are three or four stamens and a staminode, the style is hairy on one side, 17–22 mm (0.67–0.87 in) long and fixed to the side of the ovary. Flowering mainly occurs from October to February. [2] [3] [4] [5]

Taxonomy

This species was first formally described in 1810 by Robert Brown who gave it the name Trichinium macrocephalum in his Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen . [6] [7] In 1816, Jean Louis Marie Poiret transferred the species to Ptilotus as P. macrocephalus in a supplement to Encyclopédie Méthodique, Botanique. [8] [9] The specific epithet (macrocephalus) means 'large-headed'.

Distribution and habitat

Green pussytails grows in grassland, grassy woodland and heath. [2] [4] While once considered distributed throughout most of the Australian mainland, current research limits the distribution of P. macrocephalus to south-eastern Australia, mostly in south-eastern South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales. [3] A study by Hammer et al. (2019) determined that specimens previously identified as P. macrocephalus are morphologically and ecologically distinct species, the now named Ptilotus xerophilus T.Hammer & R.W.Davis (arid central and western Australia) and Ptilotus psilorhachis T.Hammer & R.W.Davis (eastern Queensland). [3]

Ecology

Ptilotus macrocephalus has cream-green coloured oval flower heads. As with other green-flowered Ptilotus species (e.g. Ptilotus nobilis ), they are thought to be predominantly pollinated by nocturnal moths. [3]

References

  1. 1 2 "Ptilotus macrocephalus". Australian Plant Census. Retrieved 10 October 2025.
  2. 1 2 3 Jacobs, Surrey Wilfrid Laurance; Lapinpuro, L. "Ptilotus macrocephalus". Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney. Retrieved 10 October 2025.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Hammer, Timothy; Davis, Robert; Thiele, Kevin (8 May 2019). "Of a different feather: two new species of featherheads from the Ptilotus macrocephalus (Amaranthaceae) complex". Australian Systematic Botany. 32 (1): 61–70. doi: 10.1071/SB18065 .
  4. 1 2 Walsh, Neville G. "Ptilotus macrocephalus". Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria. Retrieved 10 October 2025.
  5. ↑ "Ptilotus macrocephalus". Seeds of South Australia. Retrieved 10 October 2025.
  6. ↑ Brown, Robert (1810). Prodromus florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van-Diemen, exhibens characteres plantarum. Londini: typis R. Taylor et socii. doi:10.5962/bhl.title.3678.
  7. ↑ "Trichinium macrocephalum". Australian Plant Name Index. Retrieved 10 October 2025.
  8. ↑ "Ptilotus macrocephalus". Australian Plant Name Index. Retrieved 10 October 2025.
  9. ↑ Poiret, Jean Louis Marie; Lamarck, Jean-Baptiste-Pierre-Antoine de Monet (1816). Encyclopédie méthodique. Botanique. Supplement. Paris: Agasse. p. 620. Retrieved 10 October 2025.
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