Olearia humilis
# Olearia humilis

Olearia humilis is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is an erect, spindly shrub with narrowly egg-shaped or linear leaves, and purple and yellow, daisy-like inflorescences.

## Description

Olearia humilis is an erect, spindly shrub that typically grows to a height of 0.4–1 m (1 ft 4 in – 3 ft 3 in). Its stems and leaves are covered with scattered thread-like and glandular hairs. The leaves are arranged alternately along the branchlets, narrowly egg-shaped with the narrower end towards the base or linear and often curved, 20–30 mm (0.79–1.18 in) long, 1–3 mm (0.039–0.118 in) wide and sessile. The heads or daisy-like "flowers" are arranged singly on the ends of branchlets and are 15–30 mm (0.59–1.18 in) in diameter on a peduncle up to 40 mm (1.6 in) long. Each head has twenty to thirty purple or bluish-purple ray florets, the ligule 9.6–14.2 mm (0.38–0.56 in) long, surrounding a similar number of yellow disc florets. Flowering occurs from July to November and the fruit is a flattened, light brown achene, the pappus with 21 to 33 bristles.

## Taxonomy

Olearia humilis was first formally described in 1989 by Nicholas Sèan Lander in the journal Nuytsia from specimens collected by Philip Sydney Short, near the Sandstone-Paynes Find road in 1986. The specific epithet (humilis) means "low" or "small", referring to the statue of this species.

## Distribution and habitat

Olearia humilis grows in shrubland and woodland in the Avon Wheatbelt, Coolgardie, Great Victoria Desert, Murchison and Yalgoo biogeographic regions of south-western Western Australia.

## Conservation status

This daisy bush is listed as "not threatened" by the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.

