Names and synonyms

Oedera laevis DC.
=Oedera muirii C.A.Sm.
=Eroeda muirii (C.A.Smith) Levyns
= Eroeda laevis (DC.) Levyns

Type

Muir 2901, Riversdale Division, 1923-10 (BOL)

Derivation of names

Oedera = after George Christian Oeder (1728-1791), professor of Botany in Copenhagen, author of Flora Danica
laevis = smooth, polished

Diagnostic characters

Leaves glossy, smooth, erect, overlapping, tip accuminate

Description

Rigid, erect shrub to 0.45 m. Stems silvery, densely leafy above, bare below with leaf scars. Leaves opposite, sessile, concave, minutely striate, apex mucronate, pungent, margins minutely toothed; leaves below capitulum to 15 x 4 mm, linear to narrowly elliptic. Capitula about 18, cylindrical, shortly pedunculate, 8 x 2 mm, crowded in terminal umbels. Involucral bracts in several series, outer 1.5-4 mm long, ovate, apex acute, marigins membranous; inner 10-15 mm long. Receptacle paleate, palea to 10 mm long. Ray florets single, reduced, yellow, female; lamina oblong, entire or dentate. Disc florets 8-9, bisexual; tube 4 mm long, upper part bell-shaped, glabrous. Cypselas linear, angular, glabrous.

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Flowering time

August to October.

Distribution

Riversdale, Humansdorp and Kareedouw.
Known from fewer than 5 specimens.

Habitat

Rocky sandstone hillslopes or on foothills.

Notes

Very rare and poorly known species.

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.
BREMER, K. 1976. The genus Relhania (Compositae). Opera Botanica 40.
GLEN, H.F. 2004. SAPPI, What's in a Name? The Meanings of the Botanical Names of Trees. Jacana.
GOLDBLATT, P. & MANNING, J.C. 2000. Cape Plants. A conspectus of the Cape flora of South Africa. Strelitzia 9. SANBI.
HARVEY. 1865. Compositae in: W.H. Harvey & O.W. Sonder. Flora Capensis 3 (ed. 1). Hodges & Smith, Dublin.
KESTING, D. & CLARKE, H. 2008. Botanical names, what they mean. Wild Flowers of the Cape Peninsula, 3rd revised edition. Friends of Silvermine.
PHILLIPS.1940. The Flowering Plants of South Africa 20: t. 786
SMITH, C. A. 1927. Four interesting species of Compositae. Bothalia 2: 360-365.

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