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Helichrysum splendidum [family ASTERACEAE]

Date Updated: 19 August 2007

Herbarium
South African National Biodiversity Institute, Compton Herbarium, Cape Town (SAM)
Collection
Flora of Southern Africa
Resource Type
Reference Sources
Entry From
Flora of South Africa, (2003) Author: Dr J.P. Roux
Names
Helichrysum splendidum [family ASTERACEAE]
Common names
Gnapnalium splendidum Thunb., Prodr. 149 (1800), F1 Cap 648 (1823). G. stnctum Lam., Encycl. 2:747 (1788). Helichrysum strictum (Lam ) Dru/e in Rep vbot 'Soc Exch. Club Br. Isl. 1916: 626 (1917), non H strictum Moench (1794). Type: Cape of Good Hope (P-LAM!). Helichrysum xanthinum DC, Prodr. 6: 185 (1838). H. splendidum var. xanthinum (DC.) Harv. in F.C. 3: 234 (1865). Gnaphalium xanthinum (DC.) Sch. Bip. in Bot. Ztg 3: 171 (1845). Type: Cape, between the Storm- and Witteberg, Drege 5745 (G-DC, nolo.!). G. abyssinicum Sch. Bip. in Bot. Ztg 3: 174 (1845). Helichrysum abyssinicum (Sch. Bip.) A. Rich., Tent. Fl. Abyss. 423 (1848); Oliv. & Hiern in F.T.A. 3: 351 (1877). Type: Ethiopia, Mt Kubbi, 2 450 m, 26 June 1837, Schimper I: 127 (P, nolo.!; BM; G; K; S, iso.!). H. hendersonae S. Moore in J. Linn. Soc, Bot. 37: 316 (1906). Type: Nyasaland [Malawi], Nyika Plateau, 2 150-2 400 m, Henderson (BM, nolo.!). H. acrobates Bullock in Kew Bull. 1933: 149 (1933). Type: Tanganyika [Tanzania], Hanang, summit, 3 400 m, B. D. Burtt 2279 (K, nolo.!).
Information
Virgate shrub up to 1,5 m tall, or rarely sprawling, branches thinly grey-woolly, closely leafy, older parts glabrescent, rough with leaf scars. Leaves 10-30 (-40) x 1-2 (—6) mm, linear, linear-oblong or linear-lanceolate, apex acute or subacute, mucro-nate, base broad, half-clasping, margins commonly re volute, upper surface thickly or thinly greyish-white woolly or glabrous or nearly so, lower surface greyish-white woolly. Heads heterogamous, hemispheri­cal, 4—5 mm long, 5—8 mm across the radiating bracts, bases woolly, many in congested or open corymbose panicles terminating long leafy branches. Involucral bracts in c. 5 series, graded, loosely imbricate, inner about equalling or slightly exceeding flowers, tips minutely radiating, bright canary-yellow, rarely orange, glossy. Receptacle very shortly honeycombed. Flow­ers 47-105, 8-14 ("female"), 39-84 ("bisexual"), yellow. Achenes 0,75 mm long, with duplex hairs. Pappus bristles many, equalling corolla, scabrid, bases cohering by patent cilia. Fig. 45:1.
Use
145. Helichrysum splendidum (Thunb.) Less., Syn. Comp. 286 (1832); DC, Prodr. 6: 185 (1838); Harv. in F.C. 3: 234 (1865) excl. var. montanum (DC.) Harv.; Moeser in Bot. Jb. 44: 284 (1910) excl. var. montanum (DC.) Harv.; Hedberg Afroalpine Vascular Plants, Symb. Bot. Ups. 15: 204 and 342 (1957); Compton, F1. Swaziland 635 (1976); Hilliard, Compositae in Natal 200 (1977). Type: Cape of Good Hope, Thunberg (sheet 19257, UPS, holo.!).
Range
Widely distributed on the mountains from Ethio­pia and the high mountains of East Africa and Malawi to Zimbabwe, the highlands of the Transvaal and Swaziland, the Midlands and Uplands of Natal, the mountainous NE. Orange Free State, Lesotho and Transkei, and the Cape mountains from the Witteberg and Cape Drakensberg, the Stormberg and Sneeuberg, Great Winterberg and Amatola Mountains to the Swartberg near Oudtshoorn and George. Favours rocky places, on forest margins, in stream gullies, and on mountain tops; flowering between October and January. Map 147.
Helichrysum splendidum [family ASTERACEAE]
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