Botanic Gardens Trust, Sydney, Australia

 

Edmondia pinifolia

The Blue Mountains Botanic Garden, Mount Tomah - October

Common name pink everlasting
Scientific name Edmondia pinifolia (Lam.) Hilliard
Family  Asteraceae
Etymology

Genus: Edmondia - probably for James W. Edmond (d. 1875), a Scottish botanist.

Species: Greek and Latin - pinifolia, like pine leaves (Greek pitys, pine; Latin - folius, leaved)

Distribution South Africa. Endemic to the Fynbos Bioregion from the south Cedarberg to the Peninsula and Kogelberg.
Native habitat Coastal and mountainous areas with Mediterranean climate and high winter rainfall. On rocky cliffs with poor soils and summer fires.
Description

Almost un-branched, lax shrubs, 20 cm in height and 40 cm spread. Closely held, small, greyish leaves line the branches, each topped with a single flower head. Paper-daisy-like flowers, with deep red outer bracts, open through pink to almost white near the yellow centre.

Flowering/fruiting Late September through to December, here and in South Africa

Location

The African Heath bed, below the Northern Pavilion has the best display. Plants are also in the African Rock Garden and African Woodland.

Information

The horticultural merit of this sun-loving African beauty is assured when flowering drifts are viewed in a rocky setting.

Our featured plant helps to illustrate the diversity within and distribution of its plant family. Daisies are an important component of the species rich, fynbos vegetation comprised mostly of hard-leaved shrubs.

Asteraceae or Compositae, the daisy family, with more than 23,000 species, is one of the largest plant families. It is distinguished by the composite flowers composed of a central capitulum surrounded by involucral bracts. The genus Edmondia, found only in south-western Africa, comprises three species in which the
capitulum, the yellow, central button of small disc florets, is surrounded by a descending series of long-lasting, petal-like bracts.

Our plants do not set seed, possibly because summer rains tend to rot the flower heads, and are therefore propagated from cuttings.

They may perform quite differently away from the climate and soils at Mount Tomah.

Availability
AQIS no-longer permits seed or plant import because so little is know about the weed risk status of Edmondia. 

Edmondia pinifolia 

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