The open plant encyclopedia
Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.
The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.
Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.
Ptilotus polystachyus
Ptilotus polystachyus, commonly known as long tails, Prince of Wales feather, bottle-washers or long pussy-tails, is an erect annual or short-lived perennial herb in the Amaranthaceae family and is found in all mainland states of Australia, and in the Northern Territory. It has linear to narrowly elliptic or lance shaped leaves, and cylindrical spikes of greenish yellow or dull purplish-brown flowers.
Ptilotus polystachyus is endemic to Australia and is found in all mainland states and the Northern Territory. In Western Australia, it grows in red soils, sand and on sandstone on stony hills and plateaus, in the Northern Territory mostly on sandplains, dunefields, and intermittent watercourses, and a wide variety of habitats in South Australia. In New South Wales it is common in the drier areas of that state, and is rare and confined to the far north-west of Victoria where it grows on low dunes and heavier soils of the Murray River floodplain. The species is listed as of "least concern" in Queensland.
Ptilotus actinocladus · Ptilotus aervoides · Ptilotus albidus · Ptilotus alexandri · Ptilotus andersonii · Ptilotus angustifolius · Leafless Mulla Mulla · Ptilotus appendiculatus · Ptilotus aristatus · Ptilotus arthrolasius · Ptilotus astrolasius · Ptilotus auriculifolius
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Ptilotus polystachyus by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
