PLANT OF THE WEEK
Pycnosurus globusus: Billy Buttons
Do you like the sound of a plant that has flowers like buttons the size of your thumb but on stalks, with grey strappy leaves?
What if I tell you it’s an Australian native, a perennial and loves dry weather, would you be interested then?
I'm talking with Adrian O’Malley native plant expert and horticulturist.
Let’s find out about it
Billy buttons is a dense groundcover that spreads around 50cm in width.
Supported by an underground rhizome which allows it spread.
Grow it from seed, grow it from division, but just grow this sturdy groundcover like plant with yellow buttons made up of thousands of tiny flowers on tall stalks.
- Botanical Bite: The flower is a pseudanthium consisting of between three and eight florets surrounded by bracts.
- The petals are joined to form a small tube and the florets with their surrounding bracts are yellow or golden-yellow.
- each flower head may contain over a thousand individual flowers.
Best is less humid climates, although it can be grown in temperate regions of the east coast.
Short lived perennial, 3-4 years.
