Brunonia Sm. ex R.Br.

1 species endemic Aust.; all states and territories

Brunonia australis Sm. ex R.Br.

Tufted, perennial herb up to 50 cm high, clothed with long silky hairs. Leaves mostly basal, obovate to linear-cuneate, entire, mucronate, mostly 5–10 cm long. Flowers numerous, intermixed with bracts, in a dense hemispherical head on a leafless unbranched scape surrounded by an involucre of bracts. Sepals 5, ciliate. Corolla tubular, ± regular, blue; lobes 5, 3–4 mm long, oblong, nearly as long as the tube. Ovary 1-locular, superior. Fruit a nut enclosed within the persistent hairy calyx. Blue Mts, e.g. Blackheath, Bell. Open forests. Fl. summer