Flora | Flora Index | Ptilotus
The Large Green Pussytail (Ptilotus macrocephalus), sometimes known just as Green Pussytails or Featherheads, is a member of the Genus Ptilotus and has a large flower head (spike) with a yellow-greenish tinge.
The Large Green Pussytail are found growing in a variety of habitats including on rocky slopes, gravelly, clayey or stony plains, along roadsides and grey-brown swampy soils. The leaves are linear to narrowly lanceolate.
Thought to be distributed throughout most of mainland Australia, more current research confine Ptilotus macrocephalus to south-eastern South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales. New studies have determined that arid central and western Australia have a distinct species named Ptilotus xerophilus.1,2
Large Green Pussytail (Ptilotus macrocephalus) 
Large Green Pussytail (Ptilotus macrocephalus) 
Large Green Pussytail (Ptilotus macrocephalus) 
Large Green Pussytail (Ptilotus macrocephalus) 
Large Green Pussytail (Ptilotus macrocephalus) 
Large Green Pussytail (Ptilotus macrocephalus)
- Scientific classification
- Kingdom: Plantae
- Clade: Tracheophytes
- Clade: Angiosperms
- Clade: Eudicots
- Order: Caryophyllales
- Family: Amaranthaceae
- Genus: Ptilotus
- Species: P. macrocephalus
- Binomial name: Ptilotus macrocephalus
- Species: P. xerophilus
- Binomial name: Ptilotus xerophilus
Footnote & References
- Ptilotus macrocephalus, Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ptilotus_macrocephalus (accessed December 24, 2020).
- Hammer, Timothy; Davis, Robert; Thiele, Kevin (8 May 2019). “Of a different feather: two new species of featherheads from the Ptilotus macrocephalus (Amaranthaceae) complex”. Australian Systematic Botany. 32 (1): 61–70. doi:10.1071/SB18065.