Wrinkled Buttons  |  

Wrinkled buttons is a slender perennial (occasionally annual) herb growing to 30 cm tall, with narrow leaves along white cottony stems. The leaves are alternate, narrow and blunt to about 20 mm x 5 mm, dark green and generally hairless above, and white and densely hairy below. The plant bears yellow button-like flower heads to 20 mm across, consisting of numerous small, tubular florets, and surrounded by overlapping rows of narrow brown bracts covered with white hairs. Flower heads are borne singly at the ends of the stems, and appear from December to April (rarely to July). The fruit is a hairless, non-beaked achene (description from Leigh et al. 1984; Mueck 1997; Walsh & Entwisle 1999; DNRE 2001). This species can be distinguished from other species of Leiocarpa by its bell-shaped flower heads with wrinkled bracts that increase in size from the outer to the inner bracts (Wilson 2001).