Compilation
Sphaeranthus napierae

Erect or trailing perennial herb 0.1–1 m tall, the lower stem often decumbent and rooting at the nodes with thread-like roots, sparsely branched distally; stems often flushed purple, densely pubescent to puberulous but glabrescent, glandular, winged with wings to 4 mm wide, entire to dentate. Leaves slightly succulent, elliptic or (ob-)lanceolate, 2–11 cm long, 0.5–4 cm wide, base decurrent into the wings, margins serrulate or serrate, rarely subentire, apex acute or obtuse and mucronate, pubescent or sparsely puberulous but glabrescent, glandular-punctate, aromatic with a smell like camphor, apples or mint. Glomerules purple or mauve, globose or broadly ovoid, occasionally double, 9–20 mm in diameter; peduncle 0.7–7 cm long, winged; receptacle globose or ovoid; glomerule bracts hidden by the capitula (except the very tips), or the proximal visible at the base and eventually deflexed, lanceolate or elliptic, 3–7 mm long, margins ciliate distally, acuminate to almost spinulose, puberulous to almost glabrous; capitula sessile, with 4–8 bracts, some slightly folded, linear or oblanceolate, 2–4 mm long, margins distally ciliate, apex apiculate or laciniate, puberulous distally; receptacle of glomerule flat or shallowly to deeply convex. Florets: outer florets 4–15, tube narrowing from a rather wide and corky base, 1–2.9 mm long, occasionally sparsely glandular, hardly toothed or with lobes up to 0.3 mm long; style 1.9–3.1 mm long, exserted at a very late stage; inner florets (1–)2–4, tube cylindric but widening and hardly narrowed below the lobes, 1–2.2(–3) mm long, sparsely glandular, lobes 0.2–0.5 mm long; anthers 0.9–1.8 mm long, exserted only at a late stage; style 1.8–4.5 mm long, not divided, papillose. Achenes of outer florets cylindrical, 0.5–0.9 mm, puberulous; of the inner florets to 1 mm long, thin and probably sterile, glabrous or nearly so, glandular or eglandular.