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.