Names and synonyms

Leysera gnaphalodes (L.) L.
=Callisia gnaphalodes Linnaeus
=Leysera tenuifolia Salisbury
=Asteropterus gnaphalodes (L.) Rothmaler
=Callicornia gnaphaloides Burman fil.
=Leysera callicornia Linnaeus
=Asteropterus callicornia (L.) Gaertner
=Leysera incana Thunberg
=Asteropterus incanus (Thunb.) Rothmaler
=Leyssera gnaphaloides (L.) L. var. ?. glandulosa E. Mey. ex DC.
=Leyssera gnaphalioides (L.) L. var. ?. gracilis Harvey
=Asteropterus dinteri Rothmaler
=Asteropterus gracilis Rothmaler 

Common names

Skilpadteebossie, Hongertee , Duinetee, Teringteebos

Derivation of names

Leysera = after German botanist, Friederich Wilhelm von Leysser (1731-1815), the author of Flora Halensis (1761).
gnaphalodes = Gnaphalium; -odes = resembling the genus

Diagnostic characters

Disc floret pappus consist of scales and a few bristles; ray floret pappus consist of scales only.
Pappus plumose throughout
Solitary capitula on long peduncles
Leaves linear, woolly-hairy when young, covered in sparse glandular -hairs

Description

Open-branched shrublets, 0.15-0.6 m tall, glandular, often covered in soft hairs to give a greyish appearance. Stems sparsely or sometimes densely leafy, often redish. Leaves 2-10(-25) x 0.5-1(-1.5) mm, grey-green, needle-like, upper surface woolly-hairy, glandular along the margins and midrib of lower leaf surface, spreading, with densely leafy brachyblasts in the upper leaf axils. Capitula solitary on very slender peduncles, radiate, 12-20 mm diameter, florets yellow. Peduncles smooth or laxly tomentose, (5-)15-70(-100) mm long, mostly at an angle to the main stem and bent upwards below the capitulum. Involucre cup- to bell-shaped, (4-)8-20 mm wide. Involucral bracts 20-110, in about 5 rows, smooth or tomentose, outer small, ovate and rounded, inner gradually longer and somewhat spathulate with a scarious limb, limb often with a brown margin, 6-11 x 0.8-2.4 mm. Ray florets 8-45, tube glabrous or with multicellular hairs, lamina 4-12 x 1-3 mm. Disc florets 35-450, perfect, tube with multicellular hairs. Pappus of 5-7 short white scales and 3-5 plumose bristles. Cypselas 2.8-5 mm long, with sparse, rigid, adpressed twin hairs, in disc florets glabrous or with few sparse hairs. At maturity the involucral bracts open up cartwheel-like with the cypselas of ray florets being pressed against the innermost bracts by a palea for delayed release.

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Flowering time

Mainly September to November but flowering specimens seen from the whole year.

Distribution

It has a rather wide distribution: from southern Namibia throughout Namaqualand and the Karoo, to the Winterberg and Stormberg in the Eastern Cape.
Known from more than 150 specimens.

Habitat

Abundant in disturbed and sandy soils, old abandoned lands, along roadsides, on sandy flats and slopes, in depressions and in dry pans.

Notes

This perennial species is very variable in habit, leaf tomentum, capitulum size, and involucre shape. This lead to the description of a number of species over the distribution range now treated as one. When studying the species over the complete range it is difficult to separate distinct subspecies or varieties.
Robust specimens of L. tenella are similar to small-flowered plants of L. gnaphalodes but they can always be distinguished by the different pappus bristles.
Plants do not sprout after fire.
An infusion can be taken as a health tea.

References

BREMER, K. 1978. The genus Leysera (Compositae). Botaniska Notiser 131: 369-383.
KESTING, D. & CLARKE, H. 2008. Botanical names, what they mean. Wild Flowers of the Cape Peninsula, 3rd revised edition. Friends of Silvermine.
LE ROUX, A. 2005. Namaqualand. South African Wild Flower Guide 1. Botanical Society of South Africa.
MANNING, J. & GOLDBLATT, P. 1996. West Coast. South African Wild Flower Guide 7. Botanical Society of South Africa.
MANNING, J. 2009. Field guide to Wild Flowers of South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland. Struik Nature.
MANNING. J. 2007. Field Guide to Fynbos. Struik Publishers.
POWRIE, L. 2004.Common names of Karoo Plants. Strelitzia 16. National Botanical Institute.
TRINDER-SMITH, T. 2006. Wild Flowers of Table Mountain National Park. South African Wild Flower Guide 12. Botanical Society of South Africa.
VAN WYK, B-E. & GERICKE, N. 2000. People's Plants. A guide to Useful Plants of southern Africa. Briza Publications.
VLOK, J. & SCHUTTE-VLOK, A L. 2010. Plants of the Klein Karoo. Umdaus Press

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