Bright as a button and in flower now

Growing Illawarra Natives coordinator Emma Rooksby presents this week's hot button issue for plant lovers

by Emma Rooksby

Published October 21, 2026

I wrote a while back about the elusive Yellow Buttons (Chrysocephalum apiculatum), a plant that is much less common in the landscape than in Illawarra gardens, thanks to the regular sale days at Wollongong City Council's GreenPlan nursery. It's a regular on verges and in cottage gardens, where its cheerful yellow button flowers are present for much of the year.

But Yellow Buttons is absolutely not the only 'buttons' plant in the region. There are a few other yellow-flowering daisy plants with similar characteristics. And some of them are doing their flowering thing now.

Perhaps the most well-known, and one of the most striking, is the Billy Buttons (Craspedia variabilis). You can visit this plant where it's taken up residence in the planter boxes outside the Illawarra Performing Arts Centre (IPAC) in central Wollongong. The planter boxes host a wide range of plants from the endangered Illawarra Lowlands Grassy Woodland, and are a sight to behold. (I'll be sharing their story a little later in the year.)

The globular inflorescence of Billy Buttons (Craspedia variabilis), shown against a background of other plants' leaves. Billy Buttons' leaves grow in a small rosette that is often hidden beneath other vegetation. Image by Emma Rooksby. — The globular inflorescence of Billy Buttons (*Craspedia variabilis*), shown against a background of other plants' leaves. Billy Buttons' leaves grow in a small rosette that is often hidden beneath other vegetation. Image by Emma Rooksby.

While Billy Buttons' flowers are spectacular, when they're not present the plant is less conspicuous, consisting of a low rosette of dull grey-green leaves that could be confused with a flat-weed. (This is in contrast to the larger sub-shrub form of Yellow Buttons, which can form a mat up to 15cm high.)

Once the Billy Button flowers start going to seed, it's another story again, with a dandelion-like fluffy situation developing.

This is the fluffy seed head of Billy Buttons, where many of the flowers have developed into seeds. Image by Emma Rooksby.

There are a few more 'buttons' plants around in Illawarra, including the Everlasting Buttons, or Coronidium scorpioides. This is a beautiful woodland plant that has profuse yellow flowers on relatively long stems. It is shown below growing alongside a path in dappled shade.

Everlasting Buttons growing alongside a path, mixed in with native grasses and sedges. Image by Harry Rose.

There's even one really gorgeous plant, Coronidium rutidolepis, that has no common name but really deserves the 'buttons' title. Maybe we can make one up for it: Dainty Buttons? Slender Buttons?? Tiny Buttons???

Coronidium oxylepis, growing in Wollongong Botanic Garden. Image by Emma Rooksby. — *Coronidium rutidolepis*, growing in a Berkeley garden. Image by Emma Rooksby.

In the same vein, and I'm stretching it a bit here, there's a gorgeous woodland plant with a striking yellow flower that doesn't quite meet the 'buttons' threshold, but that really fits into the general button vibe.

Behold the Showy Copper-wire Daisy.

The Showy Copper-wire Daisy (Podolepis jaceoides), a step away from buttons, but still in the general buttony daisy space. Image by Carl Glaister. — The Showy Copper-wire Daisy (*Podolepis jaceoides*), a step away from buttons, but still in the general buttony daisy space. Image by Carl Glaister.

Like the Billy Buttons, this plant spends most of the year as a low rosette of leaves. Then, some time in spring, it produces its stunning complex yellow flowers (technically inflorescences, composed of many tiny individual flowers). And it's flowering right now, in places like Croom Reserve in Albion Park.

If you got to visit the Illawarra Nature Festival at the Servo in Port Kembla last week, you might have seen Showy Copper-wire Daisies in the Tracing the Grassy Woodlands exhibition. It was also the star of the show at the Illawarra Nature Festival back in 2025.