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Common names:
Klewerig reusesewejaartjie (A), Sticky everlasting
Origin of name:
tenax = strong, tough; holding fast
Diagnostic characters:
Large solitary heads in compact inflorescenceRosette
Description:
Bushy subshrub up to c. 1.8 m high, viscid and aromatic particularly when fresh, stem base thick and woody, branching (and sometimes rooting) there or higher, branches spreading, rough with leaf bases, glandular and with traces of white wool, each terminating in a large leaf rosette subtended by dry withered leaves, flowering stems (peduncles) one or several from the axils of the spent leaves below the fresh terminal growth, c. 300 (�450) mm long, glandular, thinly to thickly appressed white-woolly as well, closely leafy. Rosette leaves up to c. 180 (�250) x 80 mm, narrowly to broadly elliptic or obovate, narrowed to a broad clasping base, apex acute to obtuse, apiculate, margins of young leaves often undulate, both surfaces very glandular, in var. pallidum greyish woolly as well, at least below; peduncle leaves erect, imbricate, up to 80 x 20 (�30) mm, diminishing in size upwards, oblong-lanceolate to lanceolate, apex subacute to acute to acuminate, apiculate, base broad, cordate-clasping, sometimes very shortly decurrent, margins crisped-undulate in upper half, both surfaces glandular-pilose with traces of white wool on the margins and over the main veins to densely greyish-white woolly in var. pallidum. Heads heterogamous, depressed-globose, c. 25�35 mm across the radiating involucral bracts, solitary or up to c. 12 in a compact corymbose cluster at the peduncle tip, loosely white-woolly at the base. Involucral bracts in 10 series, somewhat graded, imbricate, much exceeding the flowers, radiating, acute, glossy, bright or pale yellow, or creamy white overlaid palest buff in var. pallidum. Receptacle shortly honeycombed. Flowers 701�1148, 80�156 female, 592�1048 homogamous, yellow. Achenes 0.75�1 mm long, barrel-shaped, glabrous. Pappus bristles many, equaling corolla, tips barbellate, bases cohering lightly by patent cilia.
Flowers in October and November.
Distribution:
Grows on steep rocky terrain, often rooted in rock crevices, and near Weza it has colonized the steep rock banks of road cuttings. Recorded only from Tabankulu and Insizwa Mountains in the Transkei, and Ngeli Mtn and the Suurberg near Weza in KwaZulu-Natal.
Grassland Biome.
Notes:
Two varieties are recognized:
Involucral bracts yellow; leaves without white wool except sometimes on the margins and over the veins
(a) var. tenax
Involucral bracts creamy-white, outer overlaid palest buff; leaves greyish-white at least on lower surface
(b) var. pallidum
Taxonomy:
Literature:
Helichrysum tenax M.D. Henderson var. pallidum Hilliard & Burtt in Notes R. bot. Gdn Edinb. 34: 84 (1975); Hilliard, Compositae in Natal 248 (1977).
Type:
Transkei, Tabankulu distr., Mt Tabankulu, c. 1 525 m, Hilliard & Burtt 7336 (NU, holo.; E; K; MO; NBG; PRE; S, iso.).
Synonym(s):
Vouchers:
Hilliard & Burtt 7308 (E; K; NU); Hilliard & Burtt 7238 (E; K; MO; NU).