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Yellow Buttons
~ Chrysocephalum apiculatum ~
ASTERACEAE
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Also known as Everlasting Buttons, these little daisies are sisters to the Fringed Everlasting (see p. 65) and sit within the same Asteraceae family as Paper Daisies and Billy Buttons (see p. 109). Their yellow blooms are an important food plant for the Australian Painted Lady butterfly (Vanessa kershawi), pictured here sipping some nectar on a still spring day. These plants will bring the sunshine to your home with their long-life cut flowers, as well as a joyful presence to your garden.
WHERE TO LOOK
Yellow Buttons are quite common across all states with a higher concentration within the temperate zones of the east coast. Find them in grasslands, open woodland and disturbed areas similar to our Flannel Flower (see p. 59).
Locations → Queensland: Girraween National Park and Mount Coot-tha Reserve; NSW: Queanbeyan Nature Reserve; Victoria: Anglesea Heath and Wilsons Promontory National Park.
FEATURES
Because these Yellow Buttons grow in varying conditions across the country, their appearance ranges from a low sprawling ground cover reaching about 7cm high with smaller fleshy leaves to a tall gangly plant 60cm high with narrow leaves. Their mini paper-daisy flowers are 7–15mm wide and have bright-yellow papery bracts supporting the yellow flower centres. Similar to the Fringed Everlasting, the Yellow Button’s body is covered in small white woolly hairs giving it a silvery appearance. There are around 11,600 fine feathery seeds per gram that are dispersed by wind and ants.
FLOWERING SEASON
Year-round → This perennial herb flowers mainly during spring and autumn. If the summer is too dry the plant may die back (it will pop back up with the rains).
PLANTING
Yellow Buttons need full sun and can be propagated by seed or by dividing the mature plant at the roots and replanting (a large cutting). They grow in a wide range of soils and their seeds can follow the same propagating method shown in Plant a Wildflower Meadow on p. xix. They are frost hardy and appreciate well-drained soils. Collect seeds after flowering and sow anytime between autumn and spring (on the warmer end if you’re in a cool climate); they will germinate in two to five weeks.
