N.S. Lander, Olearia (Asteraceae: Astereae) 
143 
Shrub to 1.5 m high. Vestilure of vegetative surfaces with minute, sessile glandular hairs and 
multicellular, uniseriate, simple eglandular hairs. Stems erect, reddish when young, becoming 
brown, viscid, densely glandular and with scattered eglandular hairs. Leaves alternate, scattered, 
ascending, sessile; lamina flat, elliptic or somewhat obovate, 6-16 x 2-5 mm, concolorous, pale 
green, viscid; venation indistinct apart from midvein; vestiture uniformly densely glandular and 
with scattered eglandular hairs; texture membranous; base narrowly cuneatc; margin serrate, fiat; 
apex acute, muticous. Heads terminal, solitary, pedunculate, conspicuously radiate, 15-40 mm 
diameter; disc 6-15 mm diameter. Peduncle to 18 mm long, densely glandular and with scattered 
eglandular hairs, with several leaflike bracts grading into those of the involucre. Involucre 
hemispheric; bracts 4-6-seriate, 3.4-8.0 x 0.6- 1.0 mm. Outer involucral bracts linear, somewhat 
cymbiform; stercome green, viscid, densely glandular and with scattered eglandular hairs abaxially; 
margin membranous, entire; apex narrowly acute. Inner involucral bracts linear, Hat; stereome pale 
green, smooth, glabrous; margin membranous, fimbriate; apex acuminate, sometimes purplish, 
fimbriate. Receptacle flat. Ray florets 13-22, biseriate, female, 10.3-18.5 mm long; lube glabrous; 
limb linear or narrowly ovate, 8.2-15.3 x 2.0-2.4 mm, whiLe, glabrous, acute and minutely 2-3-lobed 
apically; staminodes absent; stylar arms filiform, 1. 3-3.0 mm long. Disc florets 41-46, bisexual, 
yellow, buccinate, 7.6-8.8 mm long, glabrous; lobes 5, 0.7- 1.4 mm long, acute; anthers 2.8-3. 3 mm 
long, basally acute and shorter than the filament collar, will) narrowly ovale, sterile terminal 
appendage; filament collar 0.5-0.7 mm long; stylar arms oblong, 1. 8-2.4 mm long, with halfconic 
sterile appendages bearing botuliform collecting hairs above the stigmatic lines. Achenc narrowly 
obovoid, somewhat flattened, 3.54.6 x 1.2-1. 6 mm, pale brown, sericeous with duplex hairs; 
venation indistinct; carpopodium central. Pappus biseriate, with 16-25 free, minutely barbcllate 
bristles more or less equal in length to the tubular florets, and an outer row of several much shorter 
ones c. t as long. 
Flowering period. July to August. 
Distribution. Endemic to the Eremaean Botanical Province of Western Australia, occurring at 
scattered localities in the Ashburton and Giles Districts between 25-29° S and 118-127° E (Figure 
8). 
Habitat. In shallow, stony soil on laterilic breakaways amongst open Acacia shrubland. 
Conservation status. Although widely distributed, this species has been little collected, occurring 
only in small populations restricted to a specific habitat; it does not appear to be endangered or 
vulnerable. It thus appears to warrant the category 3R in the coding system of Leigh ct al. (1981). 
Other specimens examined. WESTERN AUSTRALIA: 103 miles [166 km] W ol Warburton 
Mission, June 1973, A. Blomberry s.n. (NSW, PERTH); Scorpion Hill, ’Carnegie’, F M. Bennett 
169 (PERTH); Robinson Range, N of Mcekalharra, J. Elkington 329 (PERTH); 124 miles [200 km] 
SW of Warburton Mission, A.S. George 2974 (PERTH); Tugaila Rockholc [as "The Zoo"], 
Laverton-Warburton road, A.S. George 2984 (PERTH); Beegull [Rockholc], Warburton road, 
AS George 3763 (PERTH); 14 miles [22.5 km] E of Neale Junction, Great Victoria Desert, 
A.S. George 8420 (PERTH); ’Carnegie’, A. Salkin 12 (PERTH). 
Etymology. The specific epithet draws attention to the distribution of this taxon in the Eremaean 
Botanical Province of Western Australia. 
Notes. The rigid, septate eglandular hairs and the glandular hairs found on the vegetative parts of 
plants of this species place it in Olearia section Merismotriche Archer ex Bcnth. 
In the handbook of Grieve & Blackall (1975) specimens of this species will key variously to 
O. calcarea F. Muell. ex Benth. and O. muelleri (Sondcr) Bcnth. ( O . section Adenotriche Archer ex 
Benth.) O. eremaea can be distinguished from the latter two species by its leaves, which are 
membranous rather than incrassate and have serrate rather than entire, dentate or lobed margins; and 
by its discs, which comprise 41-46 rather than 21-30 ( O . calcarea) or 12-18 ( O . muelleri ) florets. 
