Eriocephalus ambiguus
| Family: | Asteraceae |
| Full name: | Eriocephalus ambiguus (DC.) M.A.N.Müll. |
| Location: | Kyffhäuser (2416AD + 2416CB) |
| ID status: | ID not 100% certain |
| Afrikaans common name(s): | Kapokbos, Doringkapok |
| English common name(s): | Common snow-bush |
| Synonym(s): | Eriocephalus aspalathoides var. ambiguus DC. Eriocephalus aspalathoides DC. (1938) - p.p. Eriocephalus aspalathoides Harv. - p.p. Eriocephalus aspalathoides Merxm. - p.p. |
| Status: | Native |
| Description: | Many-stemmed, erect, much-branched, spinescent shrubs, 0.3-0.6 m high and up to 450 mm in diameter. Older stems with grey-brown bark, deeply grooved, eventually displaying anomalous secondary growth, 10-20 mm in diameter, breaking up into independent daughter plants; young branches yellow-brown, later yellow-grey to grey-brown, irregularly sympo-dially branched, tips of branches spinescent, 1-18 mm long; brachyblasts 1-10 mm long, short-lived. Leaves basally semilunate, adaxially concave, those on dolichoblasts alternate, linear, 4-15 x 0.5 mm, entire, densely silver-grey shortly pilose to pilose, apex obtuse; leaves on brachyblasts scale-like, rosulate, 2-4 x 0.5 mm, entire, apex obtuse. Capitula heterogamous disciform, 4 mm long, solitary on brachyblasts, rarely in terminal racemes; peduncles 1-11 mm long, shortly pilose. Involucral bracts 4 or 5, 2.5 x 1.5 mm, green, with narrow, sometimes purplish, membranous margin, ovate, flattened, abaxially appressed sericeous. Paleae: those of marginal florets free, 2 x 1.5 mm, keeled, lanceolate, apices fringed, abaxially long-pilose, hairs septate, adaxially smooth, glabrous; those of disc florets oblong-linear, membranous, apex fringed, 1 x 0.5 mm, abaxially long-pilose, adaxially smooth. Marginal female florets 2-5, yellow, inconspicuous, 2.0-2.5 mm long; lamina absent; corolla tubular-filiform, much shorter than branched style. Style branches flattened, linear, apex acute, 1-2 mm long. Ovary (and cypsela) oblong-ovoid, slightly flattened, densely lanate at maturity. Seed 1-2 mm long, flattish, trigonous. Disc florets 5-21, yellow, functionally male with sterile ovary, 2.5-3.0 mm long; corolla tubular, widening upwards, 5-toothed; teeth sometimes tinged red-purple. Stamens 5, exserted at maturity. Style unbranched, globose, truncate with short, sweeping hairs. Receptacle after anthesis with long, soft hairs between involucral bracts and marginal paleae. Chromosome number. 2n=18. Flowering time: January to April. (from JSTOR Global Plants website / Flora of Southern Africa) During good rainy seasons E. ambiguus tends to form long, drooping shoots without spines and with long leaves similar to E. luederitianus instead of the typical spinescent habit with rigid branches and very short leaves. (from Flora of Southern Africa) Terminale groeipunt omvorm tot stingeldoring. (from MAN Müller PhD thesis, 1988) |
| Link(s) |
African Plant Database
JSTOR Plant Science Kew Herbarium Catalogue BGBM Berlin-Dahlem - Virtual Herbarium Züricher Herbarien iNaturalist (Namibia / Alex Dreyer) iNaturalist (Namibia) iNaturalist (southern Africa) Flora of Zimbabwe Fleurs de notre Terre - Galerie Namibie Tree Atlas of Namibia |
| Photographer: | AA Dreyer |
| Date of photograph: | 21 Sep 2008 |
| Camera make: | Canon |
| Camera model: | PowerShot A700 |
| Lens aperture: | f/4.0 |
| Shutter speed: | 1/800 s |
| ISO speed: | - |
| Content last updated: | 18 Apr 2024 |
