N.S. Lander, Olearia (Asteraceae: Astereae) 
157 
Olearia plucheacea Lander, sp. nov. (Figure 7) 
Species nova ad Oleariam sectionem Merisnwlrichum pertinens; foliis longis, fdiformibus vel 
anguste linearibus, flaccidis, integris vel irregularitcr serrulatis vel serratis, revolutis, 
conflorescentiis dense paniculatis et capitulis anguste obconicis distinguitur. 
Typus: 16.5 km N of ’Meka’, 27° 17’ S, 116° 50’ E, Western Australia, 22 September 1987, 
R..J. Cranfield 6279 (holo: PERTH; iso: AD, K, NSW) 
Shrub to 1.5 m high. Vestiture of vegetative surfaces with minute, multicelluar, biseriate, 
capitate glandular hairs, scattered, long, spreading, multicellular, uniseriate, simple eglandular hairs 
and patent, short, multicellular, biseriate, simple eglandular hairs. Stems yellowish and somewhat 
viscid when young, pale brown and dry when older, glandular and with scattered long eglandular 
hairs. Leaves alternate, scattered, ascending, sessile; lamina incurved, flat or recurved, filiform to 
narrowly linear, 12-45 x 1-5 mm, concolorous, pale green, weakly to strongly viscid; venation 
obscure apart from the prominent midvein, sulcate above, raised below; vestiture uniformly weakly 
to densely hirsute on lx)th surfaces with short, eglandular hairs and also with glandular and long 
eglandular hairs scattered abaxially; texture flaccid; base narrowly attenuate; margin entire or 
irregularly serrulate to serrate, revolute; apex acute to acuminate, mulicous. Heads many in dense, 
terminal, paniculate conflorescences, pedunculate, conspicuously radiate, 9.5-13.5 mm diameter; 
disc 2.5-4.5 mm diameter. Peduncles to 35 mm long, glandular and with long eglandular hairs, with 
several minute leaflike bracts grading into those of the involucre. Involucre narrowly obconic; 
bracts 4-seriate, 1. 7-4.5 x 1.0- 1.7 mm. Outer involucral bracts obovate, cymbiform; stereome 
green, glandular and with a few short and long eglandular hairs scattered abaxially; margin 
narrowly membranous, fimbriate; apex broadly acute. Inner involucral bracts elliptic, cymbiform; 
stereome pale green, subglabrous with glandular and short and long eglandular hairs abaxially; 
margin broadly membranous, almost entire; apex broadly acute to obtuse. Receptacle somewhat 
convex. Ray florets 5-7, uniseriate, female, 5.2-7 .0 m long; tube subglabrous with multicellular, 
biseriate, simple eglandular hairs abaxially; limb narrowly ovate, 1.0-1. 2 x 3. 5-4.5 mm, white, 
glabrous, acute and minutely 3-lobed apically; staminodes absent; stylar arms filiform, 1.1-1. 7 mm 
long, yellow, spreading supinatc. Disc florets 3-5, bisexual, buccinate, 4. 8-7.0 mm long, yellow, 
glabrous, 5-lobed; lobes 1.2-1. 3 mm long, narrowly acute; anthers 2.6-2.9 mm long, basally acute 
and shorter than the filament collar, with narrowly elliptic, sterile terminal appendage; filament 
collar 0.3-0.4 mm long; stylar arms ligulate, 1. 3-1.6 with broadly half-conic, sterile terminal 
appendages bearing long botuliform collecting hairs above the sligmatic lines. Achene narrowly 
ellipsoid or obovoid, 1. 7-2.4 x 0.5-0.8 mm, pale brown, villous with duplex hairs; carpopodium 
somewhat oblique. Pappus of 25-38 uniseriate, free, minutely barbellatc bristles somewhat shorter 
than the tubular florets. Chromosome number , n = 9 (P.S. Short, pers. comm.). 
Flowering period. August to October. 
Distribution. Endemic to the Eremaean Botanical Province of Western Australia, occurring in the 
Ashburton and Austin Districts, between 23-28° S and 115-1 17° E (Figure 8). 
Habitat. In stony soil on sandstone breakaways amongst open low Eucalyptus/Acacia woodland or 
high shrubland. 
Conservation status. This species is widely distributed and has been collected in recent years at 
four sites. At Mt Augustus K.R. Newbey (pers. comm.) reported 10 or so plants; at his Kennedy 
Range site he encountered a single plant. P.S. Short & N.S. Lander observed scattered plants at the 
summit of the Kennedy Range. At ’Meka’, R.J. Cranfield noted occasional plants. Although this 
species is not currently considered endangered it may be at risk over a longer period through 
continued depletion due to grazing. It thus appears to warrant the category 3V in the coding system 
of Leigh et al. (1981). 
