Origin of name:

sessiliodes = resembling H. sessile

Diagnostic characters:

Mat-forming
Large solitary heads
White bracts

Description:

Much-branched cushion-forming dwarf shrub, very compact, smoothly rounded in outline, old main stems woody, gnarled, up to 10 mm diam., branches densely tufted, leafy. Leaves 4�15 x 1�5 mm, closely imbricate, rosulate when viewed from above, linear to lanceolate-elliptic, upper surface with smooth sericeous 'tissue-paper' indumentum, green with a silvery sheen, drying silvery grey, white-felted below. Heads homogamous, campanulate, 10�15 mm long, nearly double that when radiant, sessile, solitary at the tips of the branchlets. Involucral bracts in 8�12 series, graded, closely imbricate, much exceeding the flowers, outermost palest brown or sometimes rose-pink or crimson, inner white or tinged rose, opaque. Receptacle very shortly honeycombed. Flowers 37�118, yellow. Achenes 2 mm long, elliptic, with myxogenic duplex hairs. Pappus bristles many, equaling corolla, scabrid, bases cohering lightly by patent cilia.

Flowers from July to December.

Distribution:

Forms very dense, hard and compact cushions from 50 mm to c. 1 m across, tightly pressed against cliff faces or precipitous rock 'steps' down mountainsides, commonly on dolerite or basalt. On the high Lesotho mountains, the Drakensberg from the Cathedral Peak area in KwaZulu-Natal to the Barkly East area in the E. Cape, the Witteberg near Lady Grey, and the Drakensberg outliers, Mount Currie near Kokstad and Ingeli Mountain on the Natal-Transkei border, between c. 2 000 and 3 200 m.

Grassland Biome.

Notes:

Much confused with H. sessile, which is readily distinguished by its narrowly oblong leaves enveloped in thick white silky wool.

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Taxonomy:

Literature:

Helichrysum sessilioides Hilliard in Notes R. bot. Gdn Edinb. 32: 360 (1973), Compositae in Natal 220 (1977).

 

Type:

Lesotho, Qacha's Nek distr., Mt Sauer, Jacottett & Jacottet (Z, holo.).

 

Synonym(s):

H. aretioides Thell. in Vierteljahrsschrift naturf. Ges. Z�rich 66: 241 (1921), non Turcz. (1851). Type as for H. sessilioides.

H. sessile sensu Killick, Mem. bot. Surv. S. Afr. 34: 140 (1963); Trauseld, Wild Flowers of Natal Drakensberg 200 and 201 (1969), non DC.

 

Vouchers: 

Beverly & Hoener 717 (E; NU); Hilliard 5193 (E; K; MO; NU; PRE; S); Wright 187 (E; K; NU; S).