Names and synonyms

Macowania deflexa Hilliard & Burtt

Type

Balkwill, Manning & Meyer 1038, KwaZulu-Natal, Estcourt distr., Monk's Cowl Forest Station, valley below Ship's Prow Pass, 2100 m, 1983-12-07 (NU, holo.; E, K, PRE, PRF iso.)

Derivation of names

Macowania = after Dr. Peter MacOwan (1830-1901), botanist, director of the Cape Town Botanic Gardens, and discoverer of new species at the Cape.
deflexa = reflexed

Diagnostic characters

Young leaves and stem white-woolly
Leaves minutely glandular
Upper leaf surface glossy

Description

Shrub to 0.75 m tall, 1.5 m diam., profusely branched. Stems white tomentose, densely leafy above, with prominent leaf scars below. Leaves spreading at first, becoming deflexed with age, c. 10-15 x 1 mm linear, growth tips and leaves white woolly-hairy, upper leaf surface looses hair quickly, bocoming glossy-green, while stems and lower leaf surface remains woolly-hairy; upper surface minutely glandular, mainly along margins, apex acute mucronate, margins revolute. Capitula sessile, terminal, solitary or in clusters of up to 3. Involucre funnel-shaped. Involucral bracts 11 mm long, tips of innermost bracts rounded with a short mucro. Ray florets yellow, female, limb c. 7 x 2.5 mm. Disc florets hermaphrodite corolla 6 mm long. Cypselas 2.5 x 1 mm, cylindrical, 10-ribbed, villose. Pappus bristles 20-25 scabrid, soon caducous.

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Flowering time

September to November. Type specimen past flowering.

Distribution

Known from three collections in the KwaZulu-Natal Drakensberg: Tugela Gorge, SE of Champagne Castle, and below Ship's Prowl Pass.

Habitat

Mountain valleys, on southfacing slopes, among Protea.

References

ANDERBERG, A.A. 1991. Taxonomy and phylogeny of the tribe Gnaphalieae (Asteraceae). Opera Botanica 104: 50-53.
HILLIARD, O.M. & BURTT, B.L. 1976. Notes on some plants of southern Africa chiefly from Natal: V. Notes from the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh 34,3: 260-276.
HILLIARD, O.M. & BURTT, B.L. 1985. Notes on some plants of southern Africa chiefly from Natal: XI. Notes from the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh 42: 277-260.
HILLIARD, O.M. 1977. Compositae in Natal. University of Natal Press.
KESTING, D. & CLARKE, H. 2008. Botanical names, what they mean. Wild Flowers of the Cape Peninsula, 3rd revised edition. Friends of Silvermine.