Ptilotus sessilifolius, commonly known as silver-tails or crimson foxtail, is a flowering plant in the Amaranthaceae family and is endemic to mostly inland areas of continental Australia. It is an erect, shrubby perennial plant with densely hairy stems, egg-shaped leaves with the narrower end towards the base, and spherical or oval spikes of pinkish flowers.
Description Ptilotus sessilifolius is a shrubby perennial herb or shrub that typically grows to a height of up to and has stems densely covered with woolly hairs. The leaves are egg-shaped with the narrower end towards the base, wide and up to wide, the leaves at the base petiolate, the stem leaves only sparingly so. The flowers are pinkish and arranged in spherical or oval heads up to in diameter. The bracts are egg-shaped or round, long and the bracteoles broadly elliptic, longer than the bracts. The tepals are fused at the base for about , the outer surface with long, silky hairs. There are three fertile stamens and two staminodes, the ovary is glabrous and has a short stalk. Flowering mainly occurs from October to March and the fruit is long and wide.
Taxonomy This species was first formally described in 1838 by John Lindley who gave it the name Trichinium sessilifolium in Thomas Mitchell's Three Expeditions into the interior of Eastern Australia. In 1990, Gerhard Benl transferred the species to Ptilotus as P. sessilifolium in the journal Mitteilungen der Botanischen Staatssammlung Munchen. The specific epithet (sessilifolius) means 'sessile-leaved'.
Distribution and habitat Silver-tails occurs in every mainland state of mainland Australia, and in the Northern Territory. It grows on ranges, hills, rises and on dunefields, sometimes near intermittent watercourses in Western Australia the Northern Territory, South Australia, Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria.
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