Names and synonyms

Relhania dieterlenii (Phillips) Bremer
=Nestlera dieterlenii Phillips

Type

Jacottet 111, Herb. Dieterlen No. 1065, Lesotho, stony and sunny spot on slopes of Roma Kloof, 1914 (PRE, P, Z).

Common names

mamenoana, rapeisi

Derivation of names

Relhania = after Irish-born Richard Relhan (1754-1823), botanist, plant collector, bryologist, lichenologist, one of the founders of the Linnean Society, rector in Lincolnshire and author of Flora Cantabile.
dieterlenii = after Anna Dieterlen (1859-1945), born near Paris, missionary, teacher, plant collector. Collected in Lesotho, mostly around Leribe where she and her husband were stationed.

Diagnostic characters

Plants usually very floriferous and capitula standing out above the leaves
Leaves needle-shaped, pointing upwards
Leaves gland-pitted, inrolled and with woolly-hairy upper surfaces
Long slender cylindrical capitula

top

Description

Large, moderately branched shrubs up to 1.6 m tall, upright or often with bare lower parts and leafy drooping upper branches, young branches tomentose. Leaves soft-woolly, in four distinct rows, spreading or often only slightly spreading, canaliculate with involute margins, linear, 5-16 x 0.5-1 mm, glabrous or tomentose dorsally, densely lanate and whitish above, acute. Capitula solitary, sessile, terminal. Involucre cup-shaped, 3-6 mm wide. Involucral bracts 25-35, outer ovate, inner gradually longer with a � spreading, scarious apical limb, dorsally gland-dotted, obtuse-rounded. Receptacle flat-convex, epaleate. Ray florets 6-10, tube 3.7-4.3 mm long, lamina elliptic, 5.5-6.5 x 2.2-2.8 mm, 4-6-veined. Disc florets 20-30, perfect. Pappus crownlike, of � connate scales, up to 1.2 mm long. Cypsela terete, narrowly oblong, 4.5-5.5 mm long, glabrous.

Flowering time

Mainly from October to January.

Distribution

Endemic to Lesotho and areas bordering the South.
Known from more than 15 specimens.

Habitat

It grows on stony and rocky mountain slopes and is sometimes found hanging from cliffs.

Notes

R. dieterlenii is a fairly large shrub with tomentose, decussate leaves. It has no obvious close relative and should not be difficult to recognize.

top

References

BREMER, K. 1976. The genus Relhania (Compositae). Opera Botanica 40.
GLEN, H.F. & GERMISHUIZEN, G. 2010. Botanical Exploration of southern Africa. Ed. 2. Strelitzia 26. SANBI.
KESTING, D. & CLARKE, H. 2008. Botanical names, what they mean. Wild Flowers of the Cape Peninsula, 3rd revised edition. Friends of Silvermine.
POOLEY, E. 2003. Mountain Flowers. A Field guide to the Flora of the Drakensberg and Lesotho. The Flora Publications Trust.