Olearia viscidula

Wallaby Weed at Kangaroo Valley, NSW

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Identification history

	Olearia viscidula	18 Nov 2023	plants
	Logania albiflora	18 Nov 2023	lbradleyKV

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6 comments

lbradleyKV wrote:

18 Nov 2023

It’s a guess but looks like occurrence might be further south. Look forward to your identification.

lbradleyKV wrote:

19 Nov 2023

Kevin- Would you take me through the steps to key this please? Reviewing the Logania albiflora, I can see that the spacing of the stems for that species doesn’t match. And occurrence is further south. But how did you key the Olearia? Of course you probably didn’t have to key it because you’ve identified it before. But if you were going to key it, would you take me through the steps?

plants wrote:

19 Nov 2023

Firstly, I know the species well. Sceondly, I see the white woolly underside of the leaves, not as in Logania, which is glabrous.
Not knowing the species, one would probably need the typical daisy flowers to get a correct ID.

lbradleyKV wrote:

19 Nov 2023

So is that what keying is? Identifying geographic distribution, plant attributes, etc
Are there standard sources that you use?

I know Ciaran goes on about sources from Herbariums

PlantNET
https://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/floraonline.htm

VicFlora
https://vicflora.rbg.vic.gov.au/flora/search?q=%2a

I also hear there are these great books by a guy named Kevin Mills…

I thought keying was a process of elimination. But what sources and how?

NSW
Family
Arrangement of stems/leaves on stems/veins/colour/etc

I know it’s not straight forward - different attributes for different types of plants but I’m trying to find out if there is some sort of systematic process that can be used. Other than ask Kevin or Ciaran

plants wrote:

19 Nov 2023

To use a dicononous key, one usually needs the fertile parts of a plant , flowers, fruit etc.
With experince, one can oftren place a plant in a family or genus to start the key off.
Look up a genus on plantNet and you will find a key to that genus (e.g., Olearia). You will then see tyhe features of the specimen you need to have in hand for it to work.
I will have to give you a lesson in using a key sometime!

lbradleyKV wrote:

19 Nov 2023

Thanks Kevin!

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