Berkheya cirsiifolia

Berkheya cirsiifolia, commonly known as the white thistle-leaved berkheya, sometimes the Lesotho thistle and as mohata-o-mosoeu in Southern Sotho, is a branched, spiny perennial that reaches 1,5 m in height. The soft stems are hairy and winged, the wings spine toothed.

The flowerheads grow solitary or in few-flowered, branched clusters at stem-tips. The ray florets are mostly white, occasionally yellow, the disc yellow. A flowerhead is about 8 cm in diameter. The leafy involucral bracts are about 1 cm wide, their spines 1 cm long or shorter. Flowering happens in early summer to after midsummer.

The South African distribution of the species is on several sides near the Lesotho border, in the Free State, KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape; most of the plant’s range being in Lesotho. 

The habitat is moist, grassy slopes and streambanks at elevations from 1800 m to 2500 m, mostly just below the basalt cliffs. The habitat population is deemed of least concern early in the twenty first century.

The plant seems to be popular in the horticultural market (Pooley, 1998; Trauseld, 1969; iNaturalist; http://redlist.sanbi.org).