Origin of name:

in = in, within, among
ornatus = equipped, adorned

Diagnostic characters:

Compact inflorescence on long stalk
Grey hairy leaves
Medium-sized heads
Yellow bracts

Description:

Perennial herb, stock slender, woody, stem solitary, erect to c. 500 mm, simple, slender, white-felted. Leaves mostly radical, up to 150 x 10 mm, linear-lanceolate, thin, apex acuminate, base tapered, flat, petiole-like, upper surface scabridulous, often lightly cobwebbed, lower thinly greyish-white felted, triplinerved, side veins invisible, cauline leaves similar but sessile, broad-based, clasping, rapidly passing into distant bracts. Heads homogamous, narrowly campanulate, c. 4 x 2.5 mm, many in compact cymose clusters arranged in a dense flat-topped corymbose panicle 20�30 mm across. Involucral bracts in c. 4 series, graded, loosely imbricate, woolly at base, inner equaling flowers, obtuse, pellucid, light golden-brown, not radiating. Receptacle with fimbrils a little longer than the ovaries. Flowers 9�13. Achenes 0.75 mm long, glabrous. Pappus bristles many, scabrid, bases cohering by patent cilia, lightly fused as well.

Flowering in December and January.

Distribution:

Known only from Mpendhle, Underberg and Alfred districts in KwaZulu-Natal, where it grows in damp or marshy grassland, often on steep slopes, 1 800 to 2 100 m.

Grassland Biome.

Taxonomy:

Literature:

Helichrysum inornatum Hilliard & Burtt in Notes R. bot. Gdn Edinb. 34: 81 (1975); Hilliard, Compositae in Natal 181 (1977).

Type:

KwaZulu-Natal, Alfred distr., Ngeli Mtn, SE. end, c. 1 800 m, Hilliard & Burtt 5766 (NU, holo.; E; K; S, iso.).

Synonym(s):

Vouchers:

Hilliard & Burtt 7888 (E; K; NU; PRE; S); Wright 378 (E; K; NU).

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