Helichrysum aureonitens

Helichrysum aureonitens, commonly known as the golden everlasting, is a silvery grey, erect perennial that reaches heights around 40 cm. The plants grow from creeping rootstocks and form groups in the veld. 

The grey leaves covered in pale woolly hairs are oblong in shape and partly stem-clasping. The longest leaves are about 2 cm long and 3 mm wide. The leaf size decreases higher up the slender, stems as they approach the capitula, the flowerheads. These yellow flowerheads grow in dense, flat-topped, corymb-shaped clusters at stem-tips. Flowering happens from before midwinter to summer.

The species distribution is widespread in the eastern part of South Africa, occurring in all provinces excepting the Western Cape and the Northern Cape. It is also found in other parts of southern Africa. This one was photographed during December in the Magaliesberg.

The habitat is damp grassland in the summer rainfall region. The habitat population is deemed of least concern early in the twenty first century.

The plant features in indigenous medicine. It also has cultural uses invoking goodwill (Pooley, 1998; Germishuizen and Fabian, 1982; iNaturalist; https://pza.sanbi.org; http://redlist.sanbi.org).