Calotis lappulacea

Calotis lappulacea, the yellow burr-daisy, is a small, much-branched perennial herb of the Asteraceae endemic to drier inland and subcoastal regions of eastern and southern Australia, typically 15-40 cm tall and somewhat sprawling. Stems are slender, wiry, ridged and finely roughly-hairy to glandular-pubescent, becoming woody near the base. Leaves are alternate, sessile, narrowly oblong to oblanceolate, 1-4 cm long and 2-7 mm wide, with shallowly toothed to sinuate-dentate margins, dull green and rough-hairy on both surfaces, often with a clasping base on upper cauline leaves. The flower heads are solitary on slender terminal peduncles, 8-15 mm across, with one to two rows of bright yellow ray florets surrounding a small dome of yellow tubular disc florets; the involucre is hemispheric with several rows of oblong, blunt, herbaceous bracts. The most characteristic feature is the fruit: at maturity each head becomes a globular burr 7-12 mm across composed of densely packed, flattened, broadly winged achenes 3-4 mm long, each crowned with two stout, divergent, retrorsely barbed awns and several smaller scales that catch in animal fur and clothing for dispersal. The species grows on heavy clay soils of open woodland, grassland and disturbed roadsides.