A modern reference to temperate woody plants, including updated content from this site and much new material, can be found at Trees and Shrubs Online.

Olearia ledifolia (DC.) Benth.

Modern name

Olearia ledifolia (DC.) Benth.

Synonyms

Aster ledifolius A. Cunn. ex DC.

A low shrub, forming rounded clumps 1 to 2 ft high. Leaves alternate, crowded, sessile, oblong-linear, blunt or rounded at the tip, 38 to 114 in. long, leathery, with revolute margins, green above, silvery or rusty tomentose beneath. Flower-heads solitary in the axils of leaves near the ends of the branches, on short peduncles. Involucral bracts narrow-oblong, tomentose. Ray-florets ten to twelve, white. Curtis, Endem. Fl. Tasmania, Part I, No 16.

An endemic of Tasmania. Seeds of this species were sent by Harold Comber during his expedition to Tasmania 1929-30. In his Field Notes he wrote: ‘Common at 3,500-4,000 ft in most exposed places on moors, rocky forests or hill-sides. Will be rather slow growing, but good on the rock garden. Probably will appreciate some peat. Should be perfectly hardy.’ Comber rated it highly, but it has never become established in cultivation.

O. pinifolia (Hook, f.) Benth. Eurybia pinifolia Hook. f. – A rigid shrub 3 to 9 ft high, in aspect like a small pine; leaves linear, with revolute margins, up to 134 in. long, with sharp pungent tips. Flower-heads rather larger than in O. ledifolia, with eight to twelve ray-florets. Curtis, Endem. Fl. Tasmania, Part I, No 14.

An endemic of Tasmania, introduced in 1930 by Harold Comber.


Genus

Olearia

Other species in the genus