HELICHRYSUM ORIENTALE

Family:- COMPOSITAE/Sect. HELICHRYSUM

Common Names:- None

Synonyms:- Gnaphalium elegans, Gnaphalium orientale

Meaning:- Helichrysum (Gr) Golden-sun.

Orientale (L) Eastern, oriental, of the East.

General description:- Short, white-woolly perennial.

Stems:-

1) 12-30 cm. erect or ascending from the branched woody stock, densely lanate.

Leaves:-

1) Flat, lanate.

2) Basal, 20-60 mm, usually crowded, oblong-spathulate, obtuse, narrowed into the

long petiole.

3) Upper shorter and narrower.

Flowers:-

1) Inflorescence 2-8 cm across.

2) Involucre 7-10 mm diam., hemispherical, shining yellow.

a) inner bracts at least 3 times as long as the outer, linear-spathulate.

b) outer ovate-orbicular, glabrous.

Fruit:-

1) Pappus, scabrid, plumose.

Key features:-

1) All or most of the leaves flat, their margins not revolute

2) Involucre yellow, 7-10 mm diam.

3) Caespitose or woody perennial.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Crevices of limestone cliffs, open dry shrubby vegetation. 0-1200 m. also

on small islands.

Distribution:- Greece, Aegean Is. and Crete. Widely scattered but uncommon on

Crete. Mainly in the east and west.

Flowering time:- Mid-Apr to mid-June, occasionally later

Photos by:- Yannis Zacharakis