Flannel Flower

Appearance

The flannel flower is generally a herbaceous shrub growing up to 50 cm high, although rare specimens can be found to be 1.5 m high. The stem, branches and leaves of the plant are a pale grey in colour, covered in downy hair. The attractively lobed leaves are up to 10 cm long and 7 cm wide, with daisy-shaped flowerheads around 5 or occasionally 8 cm in diameter. The bracts are cream to white in colour. Flowering occurs in spring and may be profuse after bushfires.

Flannel flowers grow in sandstone heathland in coastal New South Wales and Queensland, and are commonly seen around the Sydney basin in spring.

Naming

It was named and first described by the French botanist Jacques Labillardière in his "Novae Hollandiae Plantarum Specimen" the first general flora of Australia. According to historian Edward Duyker Labillardière could not have collected the type specimen personally and might have received it from Jean-Baptiste Leschenault de La Tour botanist on the expedition of Nicolas Baudin or another early French visitor to New South Wales.

Cultural

The flannel flower is an iconic Sydney plant and has been used in imagery and art since colonial times.

In St Bede's Church in the Sydney suburb of Drummoyne, the early 20th century work The Waratah Window by Alfred Handel depicts Australian native flowers, including the waratah, emblem of the state of New South Wales, and flannel flowers, Christmas bells and wattles. Flannel flowers are the emblem of the Sydney Bush Walkers' club established in 1927.