Compilation
Baccharis senegalensis

A shrub or small tree up to c. 6 m. tall (c. 10 m. fide White 2476); stems up to c. 7 cm. diam.; branches and twigs fulvous-pubescent or tomentose; indumentum of 1-armed T-shaped hairs. Leaves with a petiole 0.5–3 cm. long; lamina 6–21 x 3–10 cm., elliptic to broadly oblong-elliptic or ovate, apex obtuse to acute, base cuneate less often somewhat rounded, margins subentire sometimes serrulate, undulate, upper surface thinly pilose becoming scabridulous or glabrescent, lower surface ± thinly pubescent to tawny tomentose, occasionally glabrescent with venation reticulate and somewhat raised. Capitula numerous in terminal divaricate paniculate corymbs up to c. 28 cm. across; stalks 3–25 mm. long, stiff, tomentellous. Involucres 3–14 mm. long (including caudate phyllary apices in subsp. oxyura) and 4–14 mm. wide, wider than long, subglobose-cyathiform. Phyllaries many, cymbiform, tightly appressed imbricate, ecaudate or with long caudate ± curved or reflexed appendages; outer phyllaries from c. 1 mm. long and ovate-acuminate or long subulate, the caudate tip if present up to c. 6 mm. long, the outermost sometimes extending briefly down the capitulum stalk; middle phyllaries c. 4 mm. long and narrowly obovate rounded and darkly mucronate-apiculate or ovate-elliptic with an attenuate-caudate tip up to c. 10 mm. long; the innermost to c. 6 mm. long and oblong-oblanceolate, rounded and darkly mucronate or sometimes caudate at apex; lamina cartilaginous, puberulous or glandular at apex, ciliate on margins otherwise glabrous; caudate apices withering early and drying brownish or purplish. Florets 10–26 per capitulum, sweetly scented; corollas mauve fading to whitish, 8–11 mm. long, narrowly funnel-shaped. Achenes 3–4 mm. long tapering-subcylindric, c. 10-ribbed, glabrous, ± glandular between ribs; pappus exserted beyond involucre, outer pappus of relatively few very caducous linear scale-like setae 1–4 mm. long, inner pappus of more persistent copious, reddish, rigid slender setae widening and somewhat flattened towards the apex, 7–8 mm. long and barbellate.O. Hoffmann’s species V. oxyura, which has larger capitula and subulate or long-caudate phyllaries, cannot be kept separate at the species level. Discontinuity between it and typical V. colorata is incomplete with forms, particularly to the north of the Flora Zambesiaca area, combining features of both.