Rhodanthe manglesii (Mangles' everlasting)

South-western Australia.

A hardy, hairless annual, growing to about 0.5 m tall, with smooth, rounded, branching stems with a leaf at the point of branching. The branches are wavy and slender and the flowerheads are borne singly. The leaves are oblong-obtuse, heart-shaped and embrace the stem at the base. They are dark green above and paler beneath. The flowerheads (capitula) appear mainly in the spring and summer and have a central disc consisting of numerous yellow, tubular disc florets, surrounded by a concave ring of rose-coloured or white, papery bracts (phyllaries), beneath which are layers of overlapping, purplish-grey, papery scales. Each cypsela (fruit) is shed with its pappus, which has feathery hairs. These act like a tiny parachute and help in fruit dispersal.

Illustration of Rhodanthe manglesii from Curtis’s Botanical Magazine, drawn by Miss Maria Curtis at her father’s extensive nursery-grounds of Glazenwood.

Curtis’s Botanical Magazine (Editor: Martyn Rix) provides an international forum of particular interest to botanists and horticulturists, plant ecologists and those with a special interest in botanical illustration.

Now well over two hundred years old, the Magazine is the longest running botanical periodical featuring colour illustrations of plants. Each four-part volume contains 24 plant portraits reproduced from watercolour originals by leading international botanical artists. Detailed but accessible articles combine horticultural and botanical information, history, conservation and economic uses of the plants described.

Published for the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew by Wiley-Blackwell Publishing.
See the Wiley-Blackwell Subscription Information page for rates (for both print and online).

Everlastings are popular in cultivation for their colourful display, particularly when grown in massed plantings. They are a well known symbol of Australia and attract large numbers of tourists when in flower. The flowerheads can be dried, and will keep their shape and colour.

Kew's Millennium Seed Bank Partnership aims to save plant life world wide, focusing on plants under threat and those of most use in the future. Seeds are dried, packaged and stored at a sub-zero temperature in our seed bank vault.

Description of seeds: Average 1,000 seed weight = 0.83 g.
Number of seed collections stored in the Millennium Seed Bank: One.
Seed storage behaviour: Orthodox (the seeds of this plant survive drying without significant reduction in their viability, and are therefore amenable to long-term frozen storage such as at the MSB)
Germination testing: 97% germination was achieved on a germination medium of 1% agar, at a temperature of 20°C, and a cycle of 12 hours daylight / 12 hours darkness.

Mangles's everlasting can be grown in most temperate areas and performs best in well-drained soil in a sunny position. It can be propagated by seed, sown in late autumn or early winter, or can be grown from cuttings.

Rhodanthe manglesii is not currently grown at Kew. Pressed and dried specimens are held in the Herbarium, where they are available to researchers by appointment.

Preserved specimens of Mangles's everlasting flowers are held in the Economic Botany Collection (under the synonym Helipterum manglesii) in the  Sir Joseph Banks Building and are available to researchers by appointment.

In 2011, Kew and the British Museum brought to the heart of London a landscape showcasing the rich biodiversity of Australia, and how these fragile systems are under threat from land usage and climate change.

Rhodanthe manglesii (Mangles' everlasting) was one of 12 star plants featured in the Landscape, which took you on a journey across a whole continent, from eastern Australia’s coastal habitat, through the arid red centre, to the western Australian granite outcrop featuring unique and highly endangered plants.

Australia Landscape was part of the Australian season at the British Museum.
Supported by Rio Tinto.

Read Kew's Australia Landscape blog

View photos of the work that went into the creation and building of the Landscape

Find out more about the other star plants in the Landscape.

Search Kew's databases for more information on this species

Kew's work in Australia

More about the Compositae

Curtis’s Botanical Magazine (Wiley-Blackwell)