Pteronia glauca

Pteronia glauca is a branching shrub that grows to 80 cm in height and more than that in width. Young stems may be hairy. Branches may grow adventitious roots, allowing the plant to spread.

The tiny narrow leaves are opposite, blue-grey and finely woolly. The yellow flowerheads are narrow, smaller than the other Karoo Pteronia species. The heads have yellow disc florets only. They appear in spring.

The species distribution is predominantly in the southeast of the Northern Cape, the northeast of the Western Cape and the northwest of the Eastern Cape. Some plants are also found in the southwest of North West and the Free State, as well as in Namibia.

The habitat is the arid inland, the plants growing in loam soils with underlying calcrete, on floodplains and seasonal river beds. The species is not considered threatened in habitat early in the twenty first century (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Shearing and Van Heerden, 2008; http://redlist.sanbi.org).