Friday, September 20, 2013

Botany picture #106: Isoetopsis graminifolia


Time to use a few photographs from my recent field trip. Today's botany picture is already one of the oddest plants we encountered. Isoetopsis graminifolia is named after the quill-wort genus Isoetes, which is a spore plant, and after grasses. In essence, the name means something like "the grass-leaved quill-wort like thingy". But believe it or not, it is a daisy (Asteraceae), and even more bizarrely it is a member of the same tribe as very typical daisies like Olearia and Brachyscome. The species is endemic to Australia but occurs over a huge area. It is an ephemeral herb that never gets more than 5 cm tall, and usually much less.

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