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Olearia pannossa in Black Hill CP

Russell Dahms | Published on 12/30/2022

The tale of the Black Hill’s Silver Daisy-bush

(Olearia pannosa ssp. pannosa)

 

Olearia pannosa has two sub speices – ssp. pannosa ( which is endemic to S.A.) and ssp. cardiophylla which also occurs in Victoria.

Other common names for the S.A. variant - ssp. pannosa are Silver Daisy-bush, Silver-leaved Daisy, Velvet Daisy-bush.

One of the distinctions is the soft, velvety silver white underside of the leaves and the prominent veins on the top of the deep green leaves. When flowing in spring they are highly visible due to their prominent white daisy flowers. After flowing they retain a large seed head for quite a while

CC 4.0 M.Fagg
leaf top
leaf bottom

In the Mount Lofty Ranges (FLB01) they are regarded as Endangered (IUCN: EN D). 
They prefer heavier soils in box woodlands and grow in small isolated populations that have become clonal.

The species list for Black Hill showed Olearia pannosa ssp. pannosa grows in the park, and when Lola Both managed the Wildflower Garden, unsuccessful attempts were made at establishing some plants in the garden.

We have tried again and have a few of these plants surviving in the WFG in a sheltered location.

Research suggests  that local groupings of plants will not pollinate with local plants from the same group of plants ( say Locn A ) and require pollation from different geographic location ( say Locn B ).

Kieran Brewer recently supplied us with 4 seedling grown plants and a suitable protected location was located close to the original population.

There was fear that the original population in Black Hill had died out, however I performed a sweep of the original areas to see if any of the original plants could be found.  I had almost given up the search but on the way back I was very surprised and pleased to find a couple of the original plants, mainly because of the silver leaves.

Fortunately the plants don’t seem to be attractive to kangaroos.

Hopefully we can continue to maintain these plants in the area, and preserve the population in Black Hill Conservation Park.

Russell

©FOBHMOne of the original plants, showing the trailing woody stems and suckering growth habit.

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