Seasonal Wild Flowers

Latin name

Helichrysum petiolare

Other names

Licorice Plant

Family

Asteraceae

Flowering season

LateJuly to September

English distribution

It is naturalised on the Isles of Scilly and a few places in

the southern half of the country.

For a map see the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland –

Silver-bush Everlastingflower

Habitat

It is a neophyte from South Africa which has been

grown in the UK since the 1870s. It escaped into the wild

from the Sub-tropical Gardens on Tresco in the early 1960s

and is now quite invasive on dunes, gravel and rocky

areas on the islands of Tresco, St. Mary’s, St. Agnes

and Bryher. It is classed as an invasive alien in some

countries.

In gardens it is mainly grown in hanging baskets and

ornamental tubs from where seeds escape into cracks

on walls and paving.

Description

Silver-bush Everlastingflower is an evergreen, scrambling, 

dome-forming shrub growing up to 1m.

The capitula are up to 4mm across and in terminal sub-

globose flower heads on long stalks.

Unopen capitula are creamy-white.

Flowers open in late summer and are tubular, yellow

and small. Disk florets are bisexual and ray florets 

female (not shown here).

Phyllaries are also creamy-white.

Leaves are up to 35mm and broadly oval. They are

covered in hairs on both sides and give the whole

shrub a striking grey-white appearance.

Stems are erect, brown and hairy.