Helichrysum lineatum

Helichrysum lineatum is a much-branched perennial growing slender, felted stems, sparsely to densely leafy. The plant spreads, forming mats of about 20 cm in diameter. 

The simple, small, leaves are elliptic to oblong or spoon-shaped, their margins entire and the tips rounded. The overlapping blades are covered in white, woolly, felted hairs. Leaf dimensions are from 4 mm to 10 mm long and from 3 mm to 7 mm wide.

The cylindrical flowerheads grow solitary or in small clusters at stem tips. The upper leaves around the flowerheads form rosettes below the inflorescence. The flowerheads have compact clusters of tiny yellow disc flowers at their centres. The discs are surrounded by four rows of involucral bracts, looking brown and cylindrical on the plant in picture. Flowerheads are about 5 mm long and 2 mm wide. The fruits are spindle-shaped achenes, just 1 mm in length.

The species distribution is mainly in Lesotho, in South Africa only in the far north of the Eastern Cape and possibly near the Lesotho border in KwaZulu-Natal. This plant was photographed in the north-east of Lesotho during January.

The habitat is high elevation grasslands of the Lesotho Maluti Mountains and the Drakensberg and disturbed gravelly areas. The habitat population is deemed of least concern early in the twenty first century (iNaturalist; iSpot; www.keys.lucidcentral.org; http://redlist.sanbi.org).