Helichrysum felinum

    Helichrysum felinum
    Author: Ivan Lätti
    Photographer: Thabo Maphisa

    Helichrysum felinum produces dense clusters of bright pink flowerhead buds that open to expose yellow disc florets. The pink bracts fade to a pale cream. Flowering happens all through spring and summer.

    The small, straggling shrub of about 50 cm usually has a few erect branches with the flowerheads at the tips. The leaves are long and narrow, sessile and tapering to the apices and dark green with cobweb-like hairy surfaces.

    The plant grows from the Cape Peninsula to Kwazulu-Natal in moist loamy or sandy soil, often in disturbed places. There are probably sufficient disturbed places in the habitat for the plant to be represented by a stable population for a long time yet (http://za.ispot.org.uk; Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2010).

    This specimen was photographed near Greyton.

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