Helichrysum alticolum Bolus

A mat-forming perennial herb, main stems up to 4 mm diam., older parts nude, younger densely clothed in greyish-white silky-woolly indumentum, stoloniferous, giving rise to numerous dwarf branches with closely rosetted leaves, flowering stems lateral, ±20-50(-100) mm long, leafy. Leaves spathulate, up to 45 x 15 mm, apex rounded, base broad, half-clasping, both surfaces closely greyish-white woolly-felted, the upper surface sometimes merely cobwebby (but glandular) with age. Heads homogamous, ±5-6 mm long, 3 mm across, subcylindric, many in a subglobose terminal cluster 10-20 mm across, their bases felted together with grey wool. Involucral bracts in ±4 series, subequal, very loosely imbricate, about equalling the flowers, spreading at the top but not radiating, glossy, bright canary-yellow, the outermost sometimes brownish. Receptacle with pit margins slightly produced. Flowers 4-6, yellow. Achenes ±1.5 mm, ellipsoid, obscurely ribbed, glabrous. Pappus bristles many, slightly flattened, tips subplumose, bases cohering lightly by patent cilia. May flower in September and October, but more usually between February and April.