Golden Everlasting or Paper Daisy

Xerochrysum bracteatum

Hey! That’s my flower! Father named me after the golden one because, when I was born, I had spiky blonde hair. Paper daisies grow all over Australia, in many habitats, from shady forests to arid plains. They come in many colours and grow in different ways. Some grow sideways, never getting very tall. Others grow over a metre high.

Some paper daisies are annuals, which means they have very short lives. They grow, flower, make seeds and die, all in the space of a single season. Others are perennials. They live for many seasons, flowering and making seeds again and again and again.

But paper daisies are deceiving. They aren’t quite what they seem. Their centre is made up of more than 100 tiny flowers. And the yellow ‘petals’ surrounding the centre aren’t really petals at all. They are bracts. They feel dry and stiff like paper.

Which is why we call them Paper Daisies. My namesake flower!