Edmondia

Edmondia is a genus of perennials and shrublets in the Asteraceae family. The plants are commonly called everlastings and in Afrikaans sewejaartjies (little seven years). The bushes sprawl, ascend or are erect, the stems white-woolly and closely leafy.

The simple leaves are alternate and ascending or appressed to the stems. The leaves are lance-shaped, linear or awl-shaped, the bases rounded and clasping, the tips sometimes with bracts below the involucres. The blades are white-woolly on top, shiny and hairless below. The margins are entire and rolled up.

The flowerheads grow solitary, in pairs or groups at stem-tips. They are broadly bell-shaped, discoid or disciform, outer ones female, the rest nearer the disc centres bisexual. The involucres comprise many rows of radiating, overlapping and pointed bracts, papery and glossy. The inner bracts exceed the florets in length. Involucre colours are white, yellow or pink, the outer ones sometimes brown. The receptacles are flat with tiny fringes, no scales.

The bisexual florets are bell-shaped, the female ones tubular. All florets are five-lobed with glandular hairs on the outside surfaces. The anthers have tails but no spurs. The style branches are truncated with hair tufts.

The fruits are cylindrical or ellipsoid and hairy with bristled pappuses.

There are three Edmondia species, all occurring in Western Cape fynbos. The plant in picture is a white-flowering Edmondia sesamoides in fynbos veld near Hermanus (Leistner, (Ed.), 2000; Manning, 2007).