With small, bright yellow flower-heads atop upright greyish stems, lemon beauty-heads is an attractive summer wildflower of native grasslands.
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Its name of ‘beauty-heads’ comes from a direct translation of its Greek scientific name – Calocephalus – referring to the beautiful compound heads.
There are several different species in this group, all of them with small dense flower-heads made up of numerous tiny flowers without petals and despite this lack of petals, they are in the daisy family.
Like most native daisy plants, this one attracts a range of small pollinating insects when it is flowering like beetles, wasps and smaller insects.
Locations where this plant occurs include heavy basalt country at Cape Clear, Ballan, Rokewood, Clunes, Skipton and Burrumbeet. It is not a large plant, growing mostly to about 20 (seldom more than 30) centimetres tall.
Lemon beauty-heads often grows in the same places as blue devil, the two flowering at the same time and providing a strong and pleasing colour contrast.
With similar shaped heads, but milky-white, milky beauty-heads is clearly a member of the same group. It is a more spreading plant of winter-wet places, lacking yellow in its flowers. It survives in Ballarat’s Victoria Park, but lemon beauty-heads is not known there.
These two species are perennial. Lemon beauty-heads is Calocephalus citreus, the citreus part of its name referring to the lemon (citrus) colour of its flowers.
Although seldom seen in cultivation, it should be suitable in rockeries and small gardens where its silvery stems and bright yellow summer flowers can be appreciated. It is said to withstand extended dry periods once established.
While not rare, its range in the wild has contracted due to settlement and grazing, so its presence should be treasured where it still occurs.
TREE SPARROWS
Twenty or more years ago, there were populations of tree sparrows at both Wendouree West and Ballan. Searches in recent years have failed to locate them. Has this introduced bird become extinct in the Ballarat region?
The tree sparrow is very similar in appearance to the common house sparrow, but has a chestnut brown crown, and both sexes are the same, with no separate female plumage. There is a small black mark on its white cheek.
Despite its name, it occurs on and around houses and buildings, and is not necessarily always found in or near trees. Its name is thus of no assistance in identification – and house sparrows frequently use trees.
