Olearia is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Asteraceae. There are about 130 different species within the genus found mostly in Australia, New Guinea and New Zealand. The genus includes herbaceous plants, shrubs and small trees. The latter are unusual among the Asteraceae and are called Tree daisies in New Zealand. All bear the familiar daisy-like composite flowerheads. The genus is named after Johann Gottfried Olearius, a 17th-century German scholar and author of Specimen Florae Hallensis.