Berkheya macrocephala

Berkheya macrocephala, commonly called ntsoantsane in Southern Sotho, is a perennial that grows from a rhizome, reaching about 50 cm in height. The plant has stout, lightly cobwebby stems.

The oblong leaves grow mainly in a basal rosette. They have pale midribs and lateral rows of ten to twelve similar, rounded to pointed lobes. These wavy, overlapping lobes have toothed and spiny margins. The spaced stem-leaves decrease in size higher up.

The species distribution is in the southwest of KwaZulu-Natal, near the northern border of the Eastern Cape with Lesotho and in Lesotho. The photo was taken near the Sani Pass.

The habitat is grassy slopes at altitudes between 1500 m and 2500 m. The habitat population is deemed of least concern early in the twenty first century.

The species is similar to B. multijuga, the thorny mountain thistle that more often has heads in clusters, its leaves cobwebby below, the fruits short-haired and the pappus scales blunt; flowering later (Pooley, 1998; iNaturalist; https://www.worldfloraonline.org; http://redlist.sanbi.org).