Origin of name:

simulans = imitating, resembling

Diagnostic characters:

Small linear leaves

Description:

Dwarf twiggy shrublet c. 50-150 mm high, main stem gnarled, c. 10 mm diam., branches stiffly erect, bare below, branchlets grey stringy-felted, closely leafy. Leaves erect, imbricate, 3-6 x 1-2 mm, linear (narrowly spathulate, up to 3 mm broad, in Hall 177; see notes below), apex more or less obtuse, slightly recurved, base broad, shortly decurrent, both surfaces enveloped in grey stringy tissue-paper-like tomentum. Heads homogamous, cylindric, c. 5-6 x 2-3 mm, solitary or 2-3 together at the branchlet tips, closely surrounded by leaves webbed to outer involucral bracts. Involucral bracts in 5 series, graded, closely, imbricate, inner equaling flowers, not radiating, all obtuse, convex, backs somewhat woolly, light or dark golden-brown, sometimes red above the stereome, semi-pellucid. Receptacle nearly smooth. Flowers 11-16. Achenes not seen, ovaries with myxogenic duplex hairs. Pappus bristles many, equaling corolla, scabrid, bases cohering lightly by patent cilia.

Flowering in November and December.

Distribution:

Grows in quartzite rubble or sand. An ill-known but distinctive species recorded from the Karoo at Whitehill (Laingsburg distr.), Calitzdorp, Prince Albert, the Gouritz River, and Zebra and Moeras River on the northern flank of the Outeniqua Mountains.

Fynbos and Nama Karoo Biomes.

Notes:

Hall 177 (NBG) has paler heads and broader leaves than the other specimens seen, but is perhaps scarcely distinct specifically (Vanrhynsdorp distr., Holriver, 4 miles N. of bridge, c. 200 ft. 31 x 1964, Hall 177, NBG).

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Taxonomy:

Literature:

Helichrysum simulans Harv. & Sond., F.C. 3: 217 (1865).

Type: 

Western Cape, George, Karroo in der Gegend von Gouritz-rivier, 1 000�3 000 Fuss, December, Ecklon 546 (S, holo.).

Synonym(s): 

H. silicicolum Compton in Trans. R. Soc. S. Afr. 19: 316 (1931). Type: Cape, Laingsburg distr., White Hill, Karoo Garden, 2 700 ft, on white quartzite rubble, 1 xii 1924, Compton 2889 (BOL, holo.).

Vouchers: 

Compton 12636 (NBG); Esterhuysen 19285 (BOL); Stokoe in SAM 68713 (SAM), Van Breda 450a (PRE).