Origin of name:

epapposum = without pappus

Diagnostic characters:

Compact rounded inflorescences, woolly below
Bracts yellow
Upright slender plant

Description:

Perennial herb, stems very slender (c. 1�2 mm diam.), elongate, branching mostly near the base, decumbent and rooting there, then erect to c. 600 mm, thinly greyish-white woolly, the indumentum 'stringy' and stripping from the older parts, closely leafy becoming pedunculoid upwards. Leaves rather rigid, more or less appressed, up to 22 x 4 (�5) mm, becoming smaller upwards, lanceolate, apex acuminate, base broad, half-clasping, margins revolute, upper surface cobwebby, glabrescent, lower greyish-white woolly, 'stringy'. Heads homogamous, very narrowly campanulate, c. 3 x 1.5 mm, very many in dense cymose clusters felted together at the base in compact, flattish corymbs up to 20 mm across terminating the branches. Involucral bractsin 2�3 series, loosely imbricate, translucent, outer tipped pale brown, inner bright canary-yellow, about equaling flowers, not radiating. Receptacle honeycombed. Flowers (3�) 4�5, yellow. Achenes 0.75 mm, glabrous. Pappus wanting.

Flowers between February and April.

Distribution:

Grows along muddy stream sides and in marshes, often on tussocks, forming tangled clumps or the slender stems may be supported by other vegetation. Ranges from the Waterberg, Magaliesberg (Rustenburg) and eastern highlands of Mpumalanga through KwaZulu-Natal and the Transkei to the Amatola Mountains in the E. Cape. Absent from coastal KwaZulu-Natal.

Savanna and Grassland Biomes.

Taxonomy:

Literature:

Helichrysum epapposum H. Bol. in Trans. R. Soc. S. Afr. 1: 155 (1909), excl. var. robustum H. Bol.; Compton, Fl. Swaziland 630 (1976); Hilliard, Compositae in Natal 160 (1977).

Type:

Lectotype: KwaZulu-Natal, Great Noodsberg, Wood 4131 (BOL; E; K, isolecto.).

Synonym(s):

Humea epapposa (H. Bol.) S. Moore in J. Linn. Soc. Bot. 40: 112 (1911). Calomeria epapposa (H. Bol.) Heine in Adansonia 7: 138 (1967).

H. inerme Moeser in Bot. Jb. 44: 246 (1910) excl. var. brachycladum Moeser. Lectotype: KwaZulu-Natal, Great Noodsberg, Wood 4131 (Z; E; K, isolecto.).

Helichrysum flavum Burtt Davy in Jl. S. Afr. Bot. 1: 108 (1935). Type: Mpumalanga, Barberton distr., White River, Rogers 20144 (K, holo.; BOL, iso.).

Vouchers:

Hilliard 5478 (E; K; NU; S); Moll 655 (NU; PRE).

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