Ozothamnus antennaria (DC.) Hook. f.

An evergreen shrub of dense leafy habit up to 10 ft high; young shoots glutinous, angled, they and the undersurface of the leaves not downy but covered with a close grey or tawny scurf. Leaves oblanceolate or obovate, tapered to the base, broad and rounded at the apex, set from 1⁄8 to 1⁄4 in. apart on the twigs; 1⁄2 to 11⁄4 in. long, 1⁄8 to 5⁄8 in. wide, glabrous and dark green above; leaf-stalk very short. Flowers produced in June and July in dense clusters terminating short axillary shoots; each flower-head consists of twenty or more florets and is 1⁄4 in. wide, dullish white, the most conspicuous feature being the pappus, which is really the calyx converted into a ring of silk-like hairs surmounting the ovary. Scales of the involucre and main flower-stalk downy. Bot. Mag., t. 9152.

Native of Tasmania, especially on Mt Wellington and the Western Mountains. This shrub has proved hardier than it was first thought to be. For nearly twenty years a plant grew outside at Kew and remained in perfect health without any shelter other than that given by the wall of the Temperate House, which protected it from north and east winds. It was killed, however, during the severe winter of 1946–7. One collector records that he found it in May on Mt Wellington where the ground was covered with three feet of snow. The foliage when crushed has a slightly acrid although not unpleasant odour.