The Hoary Sunray is a spring-flowering, short-lived perennial occurring from southernmost Queensland to Tasmania. It has slender leaves concentrated near the base of the plant and carries solitary flower-heads on long stalks. The flower-heads have a yellow centre and either yellow or white petal-like, papery bracts to attract pollinators. The Hoary Sunray is a popular native ornamental, and its rarer white variety, which is mostly found in the ACT and Tasmania, is of conservation concern.  We are combining long-read, short-read, and transcriptome sequencing.

A genome sequence of this species will be the first to be published for the large everlasting paper daisy or cudweed tribe Gnaphalieae, which includes more than 2,000 species worldwide and c. 500 species in Australia. The reference genome will allow us to understand the diversification of this important part of the Australian flora by providing a resource for bioinformatics, phylogenomic analysis, and marker development. Sequencing is funded by Bioplatforms Australia through Genomics for Australian Plants (GAP).