Origin of name:

rotundatum = rounded

Diagnostic characters:

Almost round hairy leaves; bicoloured
Large flowers; woolly
Compact flower heads on leafless stalks

Description:

Small subshrub, stems loosely branched, young parts greyish-white or fulvous woolly-felted, closely leafy except towards the heads. Leaves spreading or reflexed, mostly 13�23 x 6�10 mm, diminishing slightly in size upwards then abruptly much reduced and distant below the heads, obovate to oblong-obovate, slightly narrowed to the base, sessile, apex rounded, mucronate, upper surface thinly greyish-white woolly, often glabrescent, lower thickly and persistently woolly. Heads heterogamous, campanulate, c. 6 x 5 mm, c. 7�22 in congested rounded terminal clusters. Involucral bracts in 4�5 series, graded, inner not quite equaling flowers, not radiating, lanceolate to oblong, straw-coloured, tips acute to rounded, whole bract thickly silky-villous dorsally. Receptacle smooth. Flowers 20�38, 6�9 female, 16�29 homogamous. Achenes c. 2 mm long, barrel-shaped, ribbed, with duplex hairs, not myxogenic. Pappus bristles many, shaft barbellate, becoming shortly plumose above, bases cohering by patent cilia.

Flowering from October to December.

Distribution:

Grows in moist places on south-facing cliffs. Apparently endemic to the western end of the Riviersonderend Mountains, above Genadendal, having been recorded from Omklaarberg, Jona's Kop and the Wildepaardeberg.

Fynbos Biome.

Notes:

Closely allied to H. capense, but a coarser plant, with larger leaves and larger heads.

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Taxonomy:

Literature:

Helichrysum rotundatum Harv.in F.C. 3: 230 (1865); Moeser in Bot. Jb. 44: 288 (1910).

Type: 

Western Cape, Caledon div., tops of the mountains at Baviaanskloof near Genadendal, 15 Feb. 1815, Burchell 7726 (G-DC, holo.; K, iso.).

Synonym(s):

Eriosphaera rotundifolia DC., Prodr. 6: 166 (1838). Type as above.

E. coriacea DC., Prodr. 6: 167 (1838); Moeser in Bot, Jb. 44: 341 (1910); Helichrysum coriaceum (DC.) Harv. in F.C. 3: 230, 608 (1865), non Harv., l.c. 239; H. fulvellum Harv. in F.C. 3: 608 (1865). Type: Cape, Caledon div., mountains near Swellendam, Genadendal, Dr�ge 1773 (G-DC, holo.; BM; E; K;TCD, iso.).

Vouchers:

Bolus7391 (BOL; SAM; Z); Schlechter 9868 (BM; BOL; E; K; PRE; Z); Stokoe 6585 (BOL; K).