Podolepis jaceoides

Podolepis jaceoides, the Showy Copper Wire Daisy, is an herbaceous plant (daisy) with a perennial rootstock. Few or many stems arise from the rootstock annually and reach a height of about 0.5 centimetres. The number is probably dependent on weather conditions.

It has a very large natural distribution; found in all botanical subdivisions of NSW, in scattered patches in some parts (largely absent between Griffith, the Victorian border and Mildura, and the very north-west corner of the state). It has a scattered distribution through Victoria, but found over most of the state. It has a scattered distribution through Queensland, across large parts of the state, north to about Clermont. It is found in Tasmania sporadically as well as the islands of Bass Strait. It is found mostly in the south-east of South Australia, west to about Fowlers Bay and as far north as Gammon Ranges National Park.

It is found in a range of habitats including dry sclerophyll woodlands, heathlands and shrublands, as well as open paddocks and regenerating disturbed areas.

Young stems are hairy.

Podolepis spp. have simple leaves, produced both basally (in a rosette) and on raised flowering stems (cauline) – which are alternate. In this species, the ground-basal leaves are numerous, up to 20 cm long, oblanceolate, entire and glossy green. Stem (cauline) leaves are lanceolate and stem-clasping, to 5 cm long and about 1 cm wide, glossy green and and hairy beneath.

Podolepis spp. are in the daisy family and therefore produce flowers in an inflorescence called a capitulum (often referred to as a ‘head’). This is an evolved structure where a large number of modified flowers (florets) are grouped together to look like one flower. The Sunflower (*Helianthus annuus) would be the most grandiose example. The ‘petals’ of the capitula are actually ‘ray florets’ which contain a floret hidden inside the elongated ‘petal’ which is actually an extended limb of the corolla tube called a ligule. The disc in the middle of the capitulum (often yellow or orange in colour) consists of very small ‘disc florets’ which have a small 3-5 lobed corolla tube with stamens and a carpel. A frequent associated part of any capitulum is an involucre (overlapping rows) of bracts which typically subtend and surround the floral parts.

In this species, the heads are typically produced solitarily, at least 3 cm across, on long cauline stems; bright yellow in colour, with the ray florets having tridentate or 3-lobed apices on the outside of the head.

The fruit are achenes. In this species, they are terete (tubular) to about 5 mm long, with a pappus of bristles.