Sandflower Ammobium alatum

LATIN NAME: Ammobium alatum

COMMON NAME: Sandflower

The sandflower lifts its silvery, papery bracts on the wiry stems, and the small, yellow centres sit inside the glistening cups. The upright, branching, perennial plant carries the narrow, silvery-white, woolly leaves and the small, button-like flower heads with the silvery-white, papery bracts around the small, yellow centres through the summer, one of the fine, glistening sights of the dry border. The flowers have a long record as the fine, lasting cut and dried flowers of the old gardens, and the plant is a fine, historic presence of the dry border. It is a plant of the open, sunny, sharp-draining ground.

Scientific Research & Plant Biotechnology

The sandflower is a curious subject of the plant science, and the papery bracts keep showing up in the work on the everlasting flowers. The way the silvery-white, papery bracts hold their colour and their shape when dried has been studied at length, and it keeps appearing in the studies of the everlasting flowers, the dried-flower crops and the members of the daisy family. The woolly leaves and the wiry stems have also made it a fine study plant, and the sandflower is a regular subject of the work on the glistening bracts of the dry world.

Ecological & Economic Value & Wide Applications

The sandflower is a fine, glistening plant of the dry border and the cut-flower patch. The small, button-like flower heads with the silvery-white, papery bracts around the small, yellow centres open through the summer, one of the fine, glistening sights of the dry border, and the stems come to the vases and the dried arrangements of the old tables, holding the silvery cups for the months. The plant stands the heat, the drought and the poor ground with the ease, and it is one of the fine choices for the dry border, the cut-flower patch and the study collection. It has been written up in the horticultural and the botanical papers for the papery bracts and the lasting ways, and it is a fine, glistening plant of the open, sunny, sharp-draining garden.

Give the young plants the sharp-draining soil and the open, sunny spot, and the cups will come in the first summer.

To grow the sandflower from seed, press the fine, chaffy seeds into the surface of the open tray, without covering them, keep the tray in a bright, open spot and water gently, then set the young plants out in the open ground. The seedlings come through within a couple of weeks and grow on steadily. With the sun and the sharp-draining ground, the glistening cups will open through the summer.

Showy Australian native with flowers of pure white like the beaches of Australia抯 Gold Coast. Usually grown as an annual.