Prostrate or diffuse grey-or sometimes white-woolly herb, possibly annual, main branches 40-450 mm long, many from the crown, congested or lax, much branched above, loosely woolly, leafy. Leaves mostly 7-20 x 4-8 mm, spathulate to elliptic-spathulate, obtuse, base narrowed, margins flat, both surfaces woolly-felted, uppermost leaves, particularly those surrounding the heads, often folded lengthwise and recurved. Heads homogamous or rarely heterogamous, campanulate, 5-6 x 3-4 mm, sometimes solitary, mostly ±3-12 crowded in small glomerules terminating the branchlets. Involucral bracts in 4 series, outer short, webbed with wool to surrounding leaves, inner subequal, exceeding flowers, soon caducous, colour very variable, pale straw to deep straw to golden brown or crimson, or combination of these colours, tips very acute to acuminate, opaque, strongly hooked, concolorous or colour contrasting with that of shaft. Receptacle nearly smooth. Flowers 13-27, 2-3 occasionally female. Achenes not seen, ovaries with myxogenic duplex hairs, or very rarely glabrous. Pappus bristles many, in several series, equalling corolla, delicate, scabrid, bases cohering by patent cilia.
More
Prostrate or diffuse grey-or white-woolly herb, annual(?). Stems 40-450 mm long, many from the crown, much branched above, leafy. Leaves 7-20 x 4-8 mm, spathulate to obtuse, upper leaves often folded lengthwise and recurved. Capitula mostly homogamous, campanulate, 5-6 x 3-4 mm, mostly 3-12 in small, terminal glomerules; involucral bracts in 4 series, outer webbed to surrounding leaves, pale straw-coloured to golden-brown or crimson, or combinations. Flowers 13-27. Flowering time Sept.-Nov. Pappus of many bristles, in several series, delicate. Cypselae with duplex hairs, rarely glabrous.
Like H. leontonyx but flowerheads 5-6 mm long, mostly homogamous, and pappus bristles in several series.
Cushion-or mat-forming annual like H. litorale but involucral bracts acuminate and hooked.
Home
