About Olearia axillaris (DC.) F.Muell.
Olearia axillaris (DC.) F.Muell. is an erect, bushy shrub that typically reaches 0.5 to 3 meters (1 foot 8 inches to 9 feet 10 inches) in height. It produces many small branchlets that are densely covered in white, cottony hairs. Its aromatic leaves are arranged alternately along the branchlets, and range in shape from linear to narrowly elliptic, or from narrowly lance-shaped to egg-shaped with the narrower end at the base. Each leaf is 4 to 40 millimeters long, 1 to 6 millimeters wide, and more or less stalkless. The leaf edges are rolled under, and both leaf surfaces are covered with woolly grey hairs, with denser hair coverage on the lower surface. The daisy-like flower heads are arranged individually in leaf axils, or on the tips of short side branchlets. Each head is 5 to 10 millimeters in diameter, more or less stalkless, and has five or six rows of bracts that form a basal involucre 3.5 to 5 millimeters long. Each head holds three to six ray florets, with white petal-like ligules up to 4 millimeters long, which surround four to seven yellow disc florets. Flowering occurs mostly between December and May. The fruit is an achene 1.5 to 3 millimeters long, with straw-coloured pappus bristles that are about 5 millimeters long. This species grows in heath and scrub, mainly in near-coastal areas. It occurs in New South Wales south from Sussex Inlet, along the entire coast of Victoria, across most of South Australia, in Western Australia south from Shark Bay, and in north-eastern Tasmania.
