Strawflower Plant

Facts about Strawflower Plants, "Scientific name for Strawflower Plant Xerochrysum bracteatum". Xerochrysum comes from the Greek word "xeros", meaning Dry and chrysos meaning gold; referring to the golden papery flowers of the plant. bracteatum: from Latin bracteātus gold-plated, shining like gold; (of a plant) having bracts.

Strawflower flowering plant which comes from the family Asteraceae. Also called the Golden Everlasting it is one of the best known of the Paper Daisies. The Strawflower Plant is native to Australia and was previously known as Helichrysum bracteatum until the year 1990 when its name was changed to Xerochrysum bracteatum up to today.

In Strawflower Plants native land, it is evident to grow as an erect herbaceous annual or perennial shrub reaching up to a height of three feet (.91 meters) with simple branching at the base. However, the Strawflower Plant can experience a prostrate habit in areas like the coastal cliffs. The Strawflower Plant produces rough stems which are green in color and are robust and covered with fine hairs.

The Strawflower Plants foliage are green in color and have grey or green leaves which are elliptical, oblanceolate or lanceolate in shape. The Strawflower Plant leaves can grow up to one to four inches (2.5 to 10.1 cm) tall with a spread of about one to two centimeters and are usually covered in cobwebby hairs. The Strawflower Plant produces papery, stiff petal-like bracts which are white with outer streaked brown or reddish color, arranged in rows and curl over enclosing the florets to shield them before the plant flowers.

The flowers come in spring to autumn and are usually developed above the foliages on the top of the stems ranging from 1 3/16 to 2 3/4 inches (3 to 7 cm) in diameter. The Strawflower Plant has female flowers growing on the outer regions of the disc with those at the centre being bisexual. The female Strawflower Plants have a short tube-shaped corolla which surrounds the pistil with no stamens.

The bisexual Strawflower Plants have longer corollas with five stamens and a pistil. The Strawflower Plants have several bristles radiating around the florets and are usually yellow in color. After pollination, the Strawflower Plants produces long, smooth fruits, cypsela which develop two to three millimetres long and are brown in color.

Strawflower Plants can grow and do well in moist to well drained average garden soils and require a spacing of about nine to eighteen inches (22.8 to 45.7 cm) from each other and a depth of three inches (7.62 cm) into the ground. In addition, the Strawflower Plant requires full sun with their flowers being exposed to sun through out the day. The Strawflower Plant can be grown for ornamental purposes.