Asteraceae
Dicoma

Dicoma tomentosa Cass.

First published in Bull. Sci. Soc. Philom. Paris 1818: 47 (1818)
This species is accepted
The native range of this species is Tropical & S. Africa, Arabian Peninsula, Indian Subcontinent to Myanmar. It is a subshrub and grows primarily in the seasonally dry tropical biome.

Descriptions

Compositae, H. Beentje, C. Jeffrey & D.J.N. Hind. Flora of Tropical East Africa. 2005

Morphology General Habit
Erect often much-branched and bushy rather woody annual herb 5–70 cm tall; stems tinged purple or brown, white-tomentose, glabrescent.
Morphology Leaves
Leaves narrowly to broadly lanceolate, 2–9.5 cm long, 0.2–1.1 cm wide, attenuate at the base, closely shortly apiculate-serrulate, obtuse, aristate-apiculate, discolorous, green and thinly finely tomentose above, white or grey with dense fine tomentum beneath.
Morphology Reproductive morphology Inflorescences Capitulum
Capitula discoid, solitary or few in the leaf axils, subsessile or shortly pedunculate; involucre obconic, becoming campanulate-cylindrical in fruit, 12–17.5 mm long, thinly tomentose, glabrescent; phyllaries ± 35–50, 4-seriate, becoming progressively longer inwards, with the outer spreading or recurving and the innermost erect, narrowly triangular-lanceolate or lanceolate, scarious except for thickened mid-rib, attenuate or acuminate-attenuate into a rather soft scabrid-ciliate spine, pale green then stramineous, often purple-tinged, the longest 11.5–15 mm long.
Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Florets
Florets 5–15, all hermaphrodite; corolla cream, pale yellow or pale mauve, 4–7 mm long, lobes 2.5–3.5 mm long, anthers long-exserted, styles purple.
Morphology Reproductive morphology Fruits
Achenes turbinate, brown, strongly 10-ribbed, with dense long white ascending apically bifid hairs at the base and between the ribs, 2–3 mm long; pappus of numerous unequal outer strongly barbellate bristles and 10 inner lanceolate acute membranous scales, 4.7–7 mm long.
Figures
Fig. 4.
Habitat
Semi-desert grassland and bushland, grassland, deciduous bushland and woodland, often on rock outcrops; 400–1550 m
Distribution
K1 K2 K3 K4 K6 K7 T1 T2 T3 T5 T6 T7 U1 Senegal to Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, south to Namibia and South AfricaEgypt and east to Pakistan and W India
[FTEA]

M. Thulin et al. Flora of Somalia, Vol. 1-4 [updated 2008] https://plants.jstor.org/collection/FLOS

Morphology General Habit
Annual herb, up to 60 cm high, scarcely to much branched, greyish-white tomentose, often with purplish bark
Morphology Leaves
Leaves subsessile, (10–)20–50(–80) x (2–)4–10(–16) mm, linear to linear­-oblanceolate, conduplicate; margins callose-serrulate, apex apiculate or with a short apical spine; upper surface greenish, glabrescent; lower surface generally densely greyish-white tomentose
Morphology Reproductive morphology Inflorescences
Capitula numerous, generally solitary in a leaf axil, sessile or on short peduncles, obconic-campanulate; involucre (11–)12–15(–17.5) x (10–)12–20(–25) mm; phyllaries 2–17 x (0.5–)0.7–3 mm, arranged in 5–6 series, glabrescent to densely tomentose, with a 1–7 mm long acuminate-pungent apex
Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Corolla
Corolla 6.5–6.7 x 1.5–2 mm, white or violet
Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Androecium Stamens Anthers
Anthers 3–3.8 mm long, apical appendage conspicuously apiculate
Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Gynoecium Style
Style 7–7.5 mm long
Morphology Reproductive morphology Fruits
Achene 2–2.6 x 1–1.5 mm; pappus dimorphic, of 50–80 barbellate bristles arranged in 1–3 external series, the longest bristles 5–5.5 mm long, and c.10 scales arranged in a single internal series, (5–)6–6.5(–7.5) mm long.
Distribution
N1; C2; S1, 3; widespread in northern (Egypt), tropical and southern Africa, Socotra, Pakistan, India.
Ecology
Altitude range 230–1700 m.
Vernacular
Bisciar (Somali)
[FSOM]

Compositae, G. V. Pope. Flora Zambesiaca 6:1. 1992

Morphology General Habit
An erect annual herb, 16–65 cm. tall.
Morphology Stem
Stems purplish, branched above, leafy, greyish-white lanate to glabrescent.
Morphology Leaves
Leaves discolorous, subsessile or midrib petiole-like in the lower c. 10 mm., mostly 10–75 x 3–12 mm., linear-elliptic to oblanceolate, often conduplicate, subacute to rounded mucronate or cuspidate at the apex, narrowly cuneate or attenuate below, callose-serrulate on the margins, green and thinly araneose to ± glabrescent on the upper surface, greyish-lanate beneath.
Morphology Reproductive morphology Inflorescences Capitulum
Capitula numerous, subsessile or on short shoots, 1–15 arranged along each branch, singly or less often paired, subtended by 1–4 leaves.
Morphology Reproductive morphology Inflorescences Bracts Involucre
Involucres mostly 12–20 mm. long with phyllaries diverging to 15–20 mm. in diam., loosely obconic-campanulate.
Morphology Reproductive morphology Inflorescences Bracts Phyllaries
Phyllaries numerous, rigid dry-coriaceous, straight not reflexed, puberulous particularly the outer, usually purple-tinged with a darker purple stripe on either side of the midrib, margins sharply serrulate-ciliolate, from c. 3 mm. long and subulate outside to c. 18 mm. long and very narrowly triangular inside, apex long acuminate finely pungent.
Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Corolla
Corollas creamy-white, 5–6 mm. long, lobes linear erect straight or recurved at the apex; achenes c. 2.5 mm. long, somewhat compressed turbinate, with c. 10 pronounced ± wing-like ribs, somewhat glutinous, ± densely long hispid-setose between the ribs, the hairs ± equalling achene in length and obscuring the surface, the basal hairs shorter more numerous and ± spreading; pappus copious, dimorphic, the outer series of slender barbellate setae 5–6 mm. long, the inner of c. 10 more robust narrowly scale-like setae 5–6 mm. long and broadly scarious-winged, barbellate near the apex.
[FZ]

Extinction risk predictions for the world's flowering plants to support their conservation (2024). Bachman, S.P., Brown, M.J.M., Leão, T.C.C., Lughadha, E.N., Walker, B.E. https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/nph.19592

Conservation
Predicted extinction risk: not threatened. Confidence: confident
[AERP]

Compositae, C. D. Adams. Flora of West Tropical Africa 2. 1963

Morphology General Habit
An annual weedy herb, usually branched from a woody base, up to 2 ft. high, with cottony stems and leaves
Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Florets
Greenish-white to pale pink florets in spinose heads 1/2 in. or more long
Ecology
In dry fields.
[FWTA]

Common Names

English
Doll's Protea

Sources

  • Angiosperm Extinction Risk Predictions v1

    • Angiosperm Threat Predictions
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

  • Flora Zambesiaca

    • Flora Zambesiaca
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

  • Flora of Somalia

    • Flora of Somalia
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

  • Flora of Tropical East Africa

    • Flora of Tropical East Africa
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

  • Flora of West Tropical Africa

    • Flora of West Tropical Africa
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

  • Herbarium Catalogue Specimens

    • 'The Herbarium Catalogue, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Published on the Internet http://www.kew.org/herbcat [accessed on Day Month Year]'. Please enter the date on which you consulted the system.
    • Digital Image © Board of Trustees, RBG Kew http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

  • Kew Backbone Distributions

    • The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants 2025. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and https://powo.science.kew.org/
    • © Copyright 2023 World Checklist of Vascular Plants. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

  • Kew Names and Taxonomic Backbone

    • The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants 2025. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and https://powo.science.kew.org/
    • © Copyright 2023 International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

  • Kew Science Photographs

    • Copyright applied to individual images

  • Plants and People Africa

    • Common Names from Plants and People Africa http://www.plantsandpeopleafrica.com/
    • © Plants and People Africa http://www.plantsandpeopleafrica.com http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/