Names and synonyms

Comborhiza longipes (K.Bremer) Anderb. & K. Bremer
= Leysera longipes K.Bremer

Type

Esterhuysen 30022, Great Winterhoek State Forest, along path to Sneeugat (BOL, holo.;NBG, S, iso.).

Derivation of names

longipes = with a long base

Diagnostic characters

Subterranean, woody rhizomes, wherefrom new stems regenerate.
Sparse branching
Very long peduncles
Distinctly glandular leaves
Cypselas glabrous
Pappus barbellate (not plumose)

Description

A sparsely branched, up to c. 0.3 m high, glandular suffrutex with subterranean, woody rhizomes. Leaves linear or narrowly elliptic-lanceolate, 3-10 x 0.5-2 mm, laxly puberulous and distinctly glandular with long-stalked glands dorsally and marginally, ventrally flat and glabrous. Capitula solitary. Peduncles 40-170 mm long, sparsely hairy and glandular. Involucre urn- to cup-shaped, 5-9 mm wide. Involucral bracts 40-65, smooth but inner with stalked glands dorsally and basally, obtuse-rounded. innermost acute, sometimes mucronate; outer small and ovate; inner gradually longer and obovate-spatulate with a scarious, up to 4 mm wide, apical limb; innermost gradually narrower and obovate to oblong to linear, 8-12 mm long. Ray florets 10-18, tube glabrous or with scattered, stalked glands; lamina yellow above, dark redish-brown below, 5-9 x 1.2-2.5 mm; cypselas 4-5.5 mm long, glabrous; pappus of many, almost free, subulate scales but with no bristles. Disc florets 30-60, 5-6.5 mm long; tube with scattered, stalked glands mainly towards the base of the limb; anthers 2.6-3.4 mm long, with an acute-obtuse apical appendage; cypselas 3.5-1.5 mm long, glabrous; pappus of many scales and a few barbellate bristles (2-)4-5.

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Flowering time

December and January.

Distribution

The localities are along the path up to the Sneeugat in the Great Winterhoek Mountains N of Tulbagh and along the path up steep sides of kloof to the Waaihoek Hut on Waaihoek Peak in the western part of the Hex River mountains N of Worcester.
Known from 5 specimens collected in these mountains.

Habitat

Steep, rocky slopes in high mountains. Clayey soil.

Notes

Flowering from young coppice shoots after fire.

References

ANDERBERG, A.A. & BREMER, K. 1991. Parsimony analysis and cladistic reclassification of the Relhania generic group (Asteraceae - Gnaphalieae). Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 78: 1061-1072.
GLEN, H.F. 2004. SAPPI, What's in a Name? The Meanings of the Botanical Names of Trees. Jacana.

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