Stackhousia monogyna

3 Creamy Candles at Lerida, NSW

Request use of media

Identify this sighting

Stackhousia monogyna MichaelMulvaney 6 Feb 2025
Thesium australe Csteele4 19 Jan 2025
Thesium australe trevorpreston 17 Jan 2025

Please Login or Register to identify this sighting.

16 comments

   18 Jan 2025
@gregbaines what do you think- looks like a good fit but this is not a known location of this threatened species
   19 Jan 2025
Eighteen plants scattered in good quality Themneda grassland (grassy woodland). I suspect there are many more.
   19 Jan 2025
@MichaelMulvaney I'm confident in the ID of this plant, both from keying it out and because Rainer Rehwinkel was present when it was found.
   19 Jan 2025
Thanks Christina
   19 Jan 2025
Thanks to Rainer Rehwinkle for spotting this one.
   20 Jan 2025
More than happy to go with Rainer's field ID, though it is a bit unusual that there are no signs of flowers or fruit at this time of year. Worth checking in again in as the year progresses to confirm the presence of fruit or flowers. Thesium will often "disappear" over the winter months so don't panic if you can't find them in June.
   20 Jan 2025
Thanks Greg, I will try and get out there again in 2 or 3 weeks and see if I can find any flowers/fruit.
   20 Jan 2025
Looks quite a bit like Stackhousia monogyna outside of flowering window. Keen to see the follow up on this.
   20 Jan 2025
Here's a similar looking patch of S. monogyna (previously seen in flower) in Kambah today: Stackhousia monogyna (Creamy Candles)
   20 Jan 2025
It looks the same! @gregbaines is there a way to tell the difference?
   21 Jan 2025
Thesium is usually a more grey green than the plant in the photo. It turns yellow/golden as winter approaches. Stackhousia is more a dark green. The leaves of Thesium are 0.5-1.5mm wide. Stackhousia are 2-4mm wide. I really would expect Thesium to have fruit in the leaf axils at this time of year whereas Stackhousia have usually shed their fruit and dropped their flower spike by now. Thesium is decribed as grwoing erect but in my experience it trails along the ground and through the grass whereas Stackhousia is very erect. Whilst the habitat you described is good for Thesium (dence Themeda) it is generally in wetter areas patches or sites with higher rainfall. My guess would be that this is Stackhousia.
   21 Jan 2025
I am reluctant to disagree with Rainer if he has seen it in the field.
   21 Jan 2025
@rainer what are your views?
   29 Jan 2025
The greenish yellow narrowly linear leaves, lack of spent terminal inflorescences and sprawling habit are all good for Thesium. Lack of flowers or fruit may just reflect the previous dry conditions that meant that flowers didn’t appear this year. None of the stems we observed had any signs of lack of previous flowering in the form of the terminal inflorescence.

In contrast, there was a Stackhousia nearby, with a spent inflorescence. Locally, Stackhousia monogyna has darker green, more succulent and broader leaves, and the nearby Stackhousia with its darker green fleshy leaves matched that form.
   29 Jan 2025
Thanks Rainer
   6 Feb 2025
Ive now had advice from Lachlan Copeland, a NSW botanist, who has confirmed that this is indeed Stackhousia monogyna. Here’s what Lachlan said: “… this one is definitely a Stackhousia...stems and recurved leaf margins no good for Thesium.”

Please Login or Register to comment.

Location information

Sighting information

  • 18 Abundance
  • 17 Jan 2025 01:15 PM Recorded on
  • trevorpreston Recorded by
  • Less than 10cm Plant height

Collections

Species information

Seasonal activity

  • Was the plant in flower?

    J
    F
    M
    A
    M
    J
    J
    A
    S
    O
    N
    D

Record quality

Quality score 5 / 7
  • Images or audio
  • More than one media file
  • Verified by an expert moderator
  • GPS evidence of location
  • Additional attributes
  • Nearby sighting(s) of same species
  • Description
846,238 sightings of 23,776 species from 16,159 members
NatureMapr is developed by at3am | Made and hosted in Australia | privacy | CCA 3.0