Source:
SSA
Synonym(s):
Sphenogyne R.Br.: 142 (1813); Harvey: 137 (1865). Ursiniopsis E.Phillips: 841 (1951).
Description:
Annual or perennial herbs or subshrubs. Leaves alternate, entire or serrate to pinnatisect. Capitula radiate, rarely discoid, many-flowered, pedunculate, solitary or laxly corymbose. Involucre campanulate; bracts in 5-7 rows, free; outer usually with brown margin; inner or all with membranous margin, glabrous. Receptacle flat or convex, honeycombed, paleate; paleae as long as and enveloping disc florets, sometimes narrow with apical limb. Rayflorets neuter, rarely female, fertile or sterile; corolla yellow, orange, white or rarely reddish, dorsally sometimes coppery; tube with +/- linear-oblong, rounded or 2- or 3-toothed lamina 2.5-10 x longer than tube. Discflorets bisexual, fertile, central florets female and sterile; corolla yellow, purplish or coppery; tube cylindric or funnel-shaped, with 5 lanceolate, sometimes appendaged lobes, sometimes with marginal glands. Anthers ecalcarate and ecaudate; with ovate, apical appendage; endothecial tissue polarised. Style terete, with linear, penicillate branches, papillose at apex. Cypselas 5-ribbed, glabrous or with basal tuft of long hairs, glandular, erect or curved. Pappus in 1 row, of 5-10 obovate or rounded, hyaline, sometimes fimbriate scales, which envelop one another; or in 2 rows, of 5 outer scales and 5 inner bristles; occasionally 0. x = 8 (5, 7).
Distribution:
Species +/- 39, sthn Afr. and Ethiopia; widespread but mostly Northern Cape (Namaqualand), Western and Eastern Cape.
Classification:
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