Ammobium alatum Seeds | Sandflower
LATIN NAME: Ammobium alatum
COMMON NAME: Sandflower
Plant Profile
Sandflower is an Australian everlasting daisy, grown for stems that keep their shape and colour for years after cutting. Plants reach 60-90 cm, with grey-green leaves and, most distinctively, flattened wings running down the stem between the leaf bases, which is where the specific name alatum comes from.
The flower heads are small, white and papery, with a yellow centre, held in loose branching sprays. They are not true petals but dry bracts, stiff and translucent, which is what makes them last. In the garden they read as a light haze above other plants rather than as a bold flower, and they move in the wind.
The species comes from the grasslands and open woodland of eastern Australia, and it behaves as a fast annual in cultivation: sown in spring, flowering by July, dead by the first frost. It self-sows in mild gardens and in warm ones can become a mild nuisance, though a useful one.
Science & Biotechnology
The everlasting quality is a matter of anatomy. What looks like petals are involucral bracts with thick, lignified cell walls and little water content, so they do not wilt or brown in the way that a soft petal does. Drying them is less a process than an absence of one: cut the stems, hang them in a dark dry place, and the bracts keep their colour because there is nothing in them to decay.
Ammobium belongs to the Asteraceae, a family that has evolved dry bracts repeatedly, in genera as different as Helichrysum, Xerochrysum and Rhodanthe. The Australian members of this group are adapted to summer drought, and their seed germinates after rain with unusual speed.
For growers the interesting point is seed viability. Fresh seed germinates in two to three weeks at 18-20°C with no pretreatment, but the seed is short-lived in storage, so a two-year-old packet may give half the expected stand.
Uses & Benefits
Sandflower is a dried-flower crop and a filler for fresh arrangements, where its wiry stems and small heads are useful behind larger blooms. Cut when the bracts are fully open and before the centre turns brown, strip the lower leaves and hang in bunches of ten in a dark, airy shed.
In the garden it is a light, airy plant for the middle of a border or a cut-flower row, and it tolerates poor dry soil better than most annuals. Bees and small flies visit the heads. The stems also work in winter arrangements with grasses and seed pods, where their pale colour lifts a dark scheme.
Growing from Seed
Sow in early spring at 18-20°C on the surface of a moist seed compost, covering lightly. Germination takes two to three weeks. The seedlings are slender and should be pricked out as soon as they can be handled, since they compete badly in a crowded tray.
Plant out at 25-30 cm apart in full sun and any soil that drains; rich ground makes tall soft stems that need support. Water until established, then only in drought. Support with a net if the site is windy, since the stems are stiff but the roots are shallow. Harvest stems for drying before the centres brown, and leave one plant to seed if you want the colony to renew itself.
Our Take
A quiet plant in the border and a workhorse in the drying shed, worth growing for the stems that are still good in January.
Related Reading
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