Origin of name:

kraussii = collected by Dr Christian Ferdinand Friedrich von Krauss (1812 - 1890), professor at Stuttgart, who collected extensively in South Africa

Diagnostic characters:

Leaves and stems glandular
Leaves linear, bicoloured (green & white)
Whitish bracts
Compact to open inflorescences, branched

Description:

Bushy aromatic shrublet up to 1 m tall, branches stiff, thinly greyish-white felted, glabrescent, closely leafy. Leaves spreading or reflexed, up to 20 x 2 mm, sessile, linear, apex acute, mucronate, margins strongly revolute, sometimes nearly obscuring the lower surface, upper surface cobwebby, glabrescent, lower white-felted, glandular with glands simple inflated epidermal cells. Heads heterogamous or homogamous, sometimes on one plant, cylindric, c. 3.5 x 1 mm, very many in dense cymose clusters corymbose-paniculately arranged at the branch tips. Involucral bracts in c. 5 series, graded, closely imbricate, about equaling flowers, not radiating, glossy, pale lemon-yellow or straw-coloured. Receptacle with fimbrils equaling ovary. Flowers 5-6, 0-2 female, 3-5 homogamous, pale yellow. Achenes not seen, ovaries glabrous. Pappus bristles many, scabrid, a little shorter than corolla, bases cohering strongly by patent cilia.

Flowering from June to September.

Distribution:

Usually in dense stands, in sandy grassland or open woodland. Widespread in south tropical Africa, from southern Angola through Zambia and Zimbabwe to Mozambique and the Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal Provinces. In South Africa reaching the southern limit of its range in coastal KwaZulu-Natal just south of Durban.

Savanna and Grassland Biomes.

Notes:

Sometimes confused with H. cymosum, but easily distinguished by its very different leaves.
Often has fluffy white galls at the branch tips.

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Taxonomy:

Literature:

Helichrysum kraussii Sch. Bip. in Flora, Regensburg 27, 2: 679 (1844); Harv. in F.C. 3: 249 (1865); Wood, Natal Plants 3, 3: 21, t. 269 (1902); Moeser in Bot. Jb. 44: 252 (1910); Hilliard, Compositae in Natal 166 (1977).

 

Type:

Natal Bay [Durban], Krauss 459 (P, holo.; G; K; M; TCD; fragment PRE, iso.).

 

Synonym(s): 

Gnaphalium kraussii (Sch. Bip.) Sch. Bip. in Bot. Ztg 3: 173 (1845).

Achyrocline steetzii Vatke in �st. bot. Zeitschr. 27: 194 (1877). Helichrysum steetzii (Vatke) O. Hoffm. in Bolm Soc. Broteriana 13: 25 (1896). Type: Mozambique, Inhambane, Peters s.n. (B�).

A. batocana Oliv. & Hiern in F.T.A. 3: 339 (1877). Type: Zambia, Batoka country, Kirk (K, holo.).

 

Vouchers: 

Acocks 10878 (PRE); Hilliard 4761 (E; K; NU; PRE); Strey 6790 (NU).