HELICHRYSUM LUTEOALBUM

Family:- COMPOSITAE

Common Names:- Jersey cudweed

Synonyms:- Laphangium luteoalbum, Gnaphalium luteo-album

Meaning:- Helichrysum (Gr) Golden-sun.

Luteoalbum (L) Yellow with white

General description:- Softly grey- or white-tomentose, annual.

Stems:-

1) 8-40(-50) cm, erect or ascending, simple or branched.

Leaves:-

1) Cauline, (1-)2-5(-7) cm, oblong to linear, not decurrent, white-tomentose on both

surfaces.

2) Lower, obtuse.

Flowers:-

1) Corymb, small, dense.

2) Capitula, stemless sessile, ovoid, in semiglobose clusters of 4-12.

3) Involucral bracts, yellowish, glabrous, obtuse.

a) outer broadly ovate.

b) inner oblong.

4) Florets, c. 3 mm, yellowish, reddish above, the hermaphrodite 4-7(-10).

Fruit:-

1) Achenes 0·5 mm, tuberculate, brownish, glabrous or hairy.

2) Pappus 2-2.5 mm, deciduous.

Key features:-

1) Leaves not decurrent, white-tomentose on both surfaces, not asperous above.

2) Stem 8-40 cm.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Damp, sandy coastal flats, by streams, ditches and ruderal habitats. 0-

900 m.

Distribution:- Fairly rare on Crete, currently known from a few locations in the

Lefka Ori and one in Psiloritis.

Flowering time:- Mid-Apr to July, occasionally later.

Photos by:- Courtesy of Wiki-Commons