Actinobole condensatum No English name Endemic
There are many small plants to be found in Western Australia which are hardly mentioned in the main databases never mind any flora in book form, so identifying them for a stranger to the country is nigh on impossible. Other than it looking like a member of the Asteraceae, I could discern no feature of this plant that looked like anything else I had seen in Western Australia but the plants covered the spaces between shrubs in the roadside bush in their thousands.
By pure accident, while looking for another image on the Interweb, I came across a photo taken in 2008 published in Flickr and taken on the verge of the North West Highway just where this one was also found. It is a procumbent annual with obvious stolons and seems to form a massive network of plants in its red sanded habitat between the shrubs.
Actinobole condensatum is a genus of four endemic species one of which is Actinobole uliginosum (Flannel Cudweed) so perhaps it is related to our Gnaphalia or Filago genera which we in Britain call Cudweeds - there is a superficial similarity in appearance. Actinobole condensatum is mostly found north of Geraldton in the Shark Bay region but with few outposts further north or south. It occurs on some of the offshore islands as well.
As an aside, later we were in conversation with an Australian bloke who regularly travelled the North Western Highway "It's a good road but very long and so boring - there's just nothing to see".
The roadside bush is actually very interesting from a botanical point of view in Spring with Everlastings and flowering shrubs everywhere plus many other interesting plants which challenge the identifying skills of anyone looking there. And look at the almost pure red sand in which they all flourish.
None so blind.....
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| Actinobole condensatum No English name |
In bush by North West Highway, near Billabong (yes really) Roadhouse 3rd September 2012
Added on 12th March 2012