Cassinia longifolia

Cassinia longifolia, commonly called shiny cassinia or long-leaved cassinia, is an erect shrub in the family Asteraceae endemic to southeastern Australia, where it occurs along forest margins, in dry sclerophyll woodland, and on disturbed roadside slopes. It grows to 1-4 m tall, with stiff, woody stems and densely crowded, narrowly linear to lanceolate leaves 2-9 cm long that are dark glossy green above and white-tomentose below, with strongly recurved margins. From late spring into summer the branchlets terminate in broad, flat-topped corymbs of numerous small, cream to creamy-white flower heads surrounded by papery, persistent bracts that give the inflorescence an 'everlasting' appearance. Tiny achenes are dispersed by a pappus of barbed hairs. The plant is a notable early coloniser after fire and disturbance and is often abundant in regenerating eucalypt forest.