Helichrysum newii Oliv. & Hiern

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

Morphology General Habit

Shrublet or shrub, 0.1–1 m high, and often wider than high, forming a rounded bush; branches erect or prostrate (see note), tomentellous but glabrescent, densely leafy.

Morphology Leaves

Leaves silver-grey or grey-green, spreading or recurved, sessile, linear or narrowly elliptic, 6–22 mm long, 1–4 mm wide, base half-clasping, margins recurved, apex obtuse and mucronate, white-tomentose on both surfaces.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Inflorescences Capitulum

Capitula 15–25 mm long, heterogamous, solitary and terminal on branches; stalks of individual capitula very short; phyllaries multiseriate, silvery white and shiny, the outermost often faintly yellow or brown and sometimes (especially towards the top of the altitude range) with a pink flush proximally, ovate to lanceolate to linear, 5–16 mm long, acute, stereome pilose; receptacle honeycombed.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Florets

Florets yellow, many (hundreds); outer florets many, tube cylindrical, 3.6–4 mm long, lobes erect, 0.4–0.5 mm long and glandular, style 4.3–4.7 mm long; inner florets few (≤10), tube narrowly infundibuliform, 4.3–4.7 mm long, lobes erect, 0.4–0.6 mm long, anthers 2.2–2.3 mm long, style 5–5.5 mm long.

Morphology Reproductive morphology Fruits

Achenes cylindrical, 0.7–1.2 mm long, glabrous; pappus cream, 4.3–5.5 mm long, caducous in groups.

Figures

Fig. 86/2 (page 406), habit.

Habitat

On rocky ground, at the lower end of the range in grassland and with Alchemilla, at the upper end of the range on mostly bare ground; may form large clumps, or (on Virunga) a zone of its own; (2700–)3000–4600 m

Distribution

K3 K4 T2 U2 U3