Common name: Alpine Cotula
Cotula alpina (Hook.f.) Hook.f. APNI* 
Description: Perennial herb, stoloniferous, branches prostrate with leaves ± aggregated at tips, glabrous.
Leaves ± oblong, usually 2–3.5 cm long, 4–6 mm wide, once pinnatifid with occasional secondary teeth; pinnae ± ovate, acute with pale ± mucronate apices; lamina glandular-punctate; base tapered into broad-winged petiole, c. 10 mm long, broadly stem-clasping.
Heads c. 4 mm diam.; peduncle hollow, shorter than leaves at flowering, to 4 c. in fruit; involucral bracts oblong, obtuse, glabrous, ± hyaline to purple margins. Outer florets 3- or 4-seriate, lacking corollas and pedicels; inner florets usually sterile.
Achenes 1.5–2 mm long, laterally compressed with thick, rounded wing undifferentiated from seed, scattered papillose hairs near top and apical margins.
Flowering: summer.
Distribution and occurrence: Grows in wet sites, Sphagnum swamps at higher elevations; chiefly south from A.C.T., also recorded near Lithgow.
NSW subdivisions: NT, CT, ST
Other Australian states: Vic. Tas.
Text by E. A. Brown
Taxon concept: Flora of NSW 3 (1992)
APNI* Provides a link to the Australian Plant Name Index (hosted by the Australian National Botanic Gardens) for comprehensive bibliographic data
***The AVH map option provides a detailed interactive Australia wide distribution map drawn from collections held by all major Australian herbaria participating in the Australian Virtual Herbarium project.
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