Ptilotus polystachyus

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Ptilotus polystachyus, commonly known as Prince of Wales feather or Long tails, is a perennial herb in the Amaranthaceae family. It grows about 1–1.5 meters tall and can form clumps up to 2 meters across.

Description
- Stems: ribbed with short, crisped or verticillate hairs near the base.
- Leaves: alternate, cauline, linear to lanceolate, with undulate margins; 10–210 mm long and 1.5–36 mm wide.
- Inflorescence: terminal, cylindrical, greenish-brown, 20–210 mm long; can have more than 150 flowers.
- Bracts and flowers: Bracts narrow to broad-ovate; bracteoles 3.1–7.1 mm long; perianth segments 12–16 mm; flowers with 3–4 stamens and 1–2 staminodes; ovary subsessile and glabrous. Flowers often have deep red at the base.

Distribution
- Endemic to Australia; found in all mainland states and the Northern Territory.
- More common in drier inland areas and often occurs in disturbed sites such as road edges.

Taxonomy
- Described in 1829 by Charles Gaudichaud-Beaupré as Trichinium polystachyum.
- Redefined into the genus Ptilotus by Ferdinand von Mueller in 1868.
- In 2010, taxonomic work split varieties, with some treated as P. polystachyus and others reclassified as a separate species, Polystachyus giganteus.

Common names
- Prince of Wales feather
- Long tails