Little Button
Seedling already in Bud
Little Button
Bushy Stage
| Little Button Seedling already in Bud | | Little Button Bushy Stage | | ||
 | Class: | Plants (Plantae) - Land Plants (Charophyta) - Land Plants (Equisetopsida) | |||
| Order: | Sunflowers (Asterales) | ||||
| Family: | Daisy (Asteraceae) iNaturalist Observation | ||||
| Species: | Little Button (Leptorhynchos tetrachaetus) | ||||
| This Photo: | Young | ||||
| Other name: | Beauty Buttons | ||||
Thank you (BaronSamedi ) for confirming the id of this species for us EXTRA - Photo Specific Information: Notice how this plant competes heavily with small introduced species in this photo; Burr Medic, Thread Iris & Wards Weed. General Species Information: Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA), Coastal Areas and elsewhere A small, yellow flowering, annual forb with long, hairy green leaves that flatten out then roll with age. Leaf back is felted. Starting bushy, they become slender as they flower. Their stems also turn red / copper as they age. The flowers are identical to wireworts. We have to turn the flower over and look at the back to tell the difference. Wireworts have black, curved, hairy backs (sepals) set in greeny white wool. Little Buttons have appendages (like minute leaves) set in white wool. The appendages are copper coloured in the bud, fading to beige in the flower. The main difference with the structure is that these have leaves up the flower stem. Whereas wireworts only have basal leaves. We'd say these flowers are, on average, a bit smaller than wirewort flowers. Individual wireworts can be significantly larger. Little Buttons are in bud almost from germination making them easy to ID early, unlike wireworts. Photos concentrate on the significant changes as it grows. Similar Species: Wirewort (Asteridea athrixioides) | |||||
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