N.S. Lander, Olearia (Asteraceae: Astereae) 
149 
Etymology. The specific epithet refers to the rather unkempt appearance of plants of this taxon. 
Notes. The densely intricate, woolly eglandular hairs and the glandular hairs found on the 
vegetative parts of plants of this species place it in Olearia section Eriotriche Archer ex Benth. 
In the handbook of Grieve & Blackall (1975) specimens of this species will key to 
O. pimeleoides (DC.) Benth. O. incondita can be distinguished from the latter by its outer 
involucral bracts, which are cymbiform rather than flat; by its disc florets, the vestiture of which 
includes glandular as well as eglandular hairs; and by its pappus, which comprises 74-102 rather 
than 39-65 long bristles. 
Olearia laciniifolia Lander, sp. nov. (Figure 4) 
Species nova ad Oleariam sectionem Merismotrichum pertinens; foliis oblongis, scleris, 
laciniatis, leviter revolutis facile distinguitur. 
Typus: Newdegate-Lake Grace road. Western Australia, 22 September 1964, A .R . Fairall 1623 
(holo: PERTH; iso: KPBG). 
Shrub to c. 1 m high. Vestiture of vegetative surfaces with long, multicellular, uniseriate, simple 
eglandular hairs and minute, multicellular, biseriate, capitate glandular hairs. Stems erect, pale 
yellow when young, becoming purplish, hirsute. Leaves alternate, scattered, ascending, sessile; 
lamina flat, oblong, 6-35 x 1-10 mm, concolorous, grey-green, reticulate; venation indistinct apart 
from the stout midvein; vestiture uniformly glandular; texture sclerous; base narrowly cuneate; 
margin laciniate, weakly revolute; apex lobed. Heads terminal, solitary, pedunculate, 
conspicuously radiate, 26-35 mm in diameter; disc 12-20 mm diameter. Peduncles to 25 mm long, 
hirsute, with several leaflike bracts grading into those of the involucre. Involucre hemispheric; 
bracts 5-seriate, 2.2-1. 5 x 0.6- 1.2 mm. Outer involucral bracts narrowly triangular, cymbiform; 
stereome conspicuously vesicular along midrib and glandular abaxially; margin, narrowly 
membranous, weakly fimbriate; apex acute. Inner involucral bracts linear, fiat; stereome 
conspicuously vesicular along midrib and subglabrous with glandular hairs abaxially; margin entire; 
apex acuminate, purplish, fimbriate. Receptacle somewhat convex. Ray florets , 35-43, 3-seriate, 
female, 10.5-18.0 mm long; tube with simple multicelluar, biseriate eglandular hairs scattered 
abaxially limb narrowly ovate, 8-14 x 1-2 mm, lilac, glabrous, emarginate apically; staminodes 
absent; stylar arms filiform or very narrowly half-ellipsoid, 1.4-1.6 mm long. Disc florets 53-90, 
bisexual, white below, yellow above, buccinate, 4. 8-6.0 mm long, subglabrous, with multicellular, 
biseriate, simple eglandular hairs scattered abaxially; lobes 5, 0.1 -0.8 mm long, acute; anthers 
2.2-2. 3 mm long, basally acute and shorter than the filament collar, with narrowly elliptic, sterile 
terminal appendage; filament collar 0. 3-0.5 mm long; stylar arms oblong, with half-conic, sterile 
terminal appendage bearing long, clavate collecting hairs above the stigmatic lines. Achene 
ellipsoid, flattened, 1. 2-2.0 x 0.4-0.5 mm, pale brown, sericeous with duplex hairs; venation 
indistinct; carpopodium oblique. Pappus uniseriate, with c. 20 free, minutely barbellate bristles 
more or less equal in length to the tubular florets. 
Flowering period. June to November. 
Distribution. Endemic to the Roe District, South-West Botanical Province, Western Australia, 
occurring between 33-34° S and 118-124° S (Figure 8). 
Habitat. Occurs on white sand amongst mallee and Melaleuca shrubland around playa lakes. 
Conservation status. Although this species is widely distributed it has been little collected, 
occurring only in small populations restricted to specific habitats in an area likely to experience 
changes in land use which would threaten its survival. It thus appears to warrant the category 3V in 
the coding system of Leigh et al. (1981). 
