Names and synonyms

Relhania rotundifolia Lessing
=Gorteria ovata Vahl ex Less., pro syn.

Type

Zeyher 917, Malmesbury dist., Groenekloof and mountains in the neighbourhood (K)

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.
rotundifolius = with round leaves

Diagnostic characters

Erect, openly branched shrublet
Leaves large, obovate, tips rounded
Leaves white-woolly above
Capitula large

Description

A moderately branched, greyish shrublet, 0.4-0.6 m high. Stems erect, tomentose, leafy, becoming glabrous and nude and marked with leaf-scars. Leaves alternate, 8-15 x 4-9 mm, spreading, flat with slightly involute margins, elliptic to spatulate, densely tomentose dorsally, densely white-woolly above, obtuse to rounded. Capitula solitary, sessile, terminal. Involucre widely urn- to cup-shaped, 5-13 mm wide. Involucral bracts 30-60, outer ovate, inner gradually longer, innermost spatulate with a spreading apical limb. Receptacle flat, paleate. Paleae narrowly spatulate, 6-7 mm long, dorsally gland-dotted, acute. Ray florets 16-25, tube, 2.5-3.5 mm long, lamina elliptic, 6-8 x 2-3 mm, 6-12-veined. Disc florets >50, perfect. Pappus tubular, apically irregularly dentate, up to 2 mm long. Cypsela almost terete, narrowly oblong, 2.5-3.8 x 0.7-1.2 mm, glabrous.

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Flowering time

Mainly from September to October (to November).

Distribution

Reported from the flats around Malmesbury, Darling, Dassenberg and Hopefield.
Known from about 15 specimens.

Habitat

Grows in seasonally moist or wet sand or clay associated with sparse Restio vegetation, at altidudes between 100-150 m. Also on brackish flats and depressions.

Notes

R. rotundifolia is a characteristic species with wide leaves, densely lanate and whitish above. It is similar to R. spathulifolia, but has slightly larger capitula, a paleate receptacle, glabrous cypselas and a tubular pappus.

References

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.
KESTING, D. & CLARKE, H. 2008. Botanical names, what they mean. Wild Flowers of the Cape Peninsula, 3rd revised edition. Friends of Silvermine.
SMUTS, L.M. 1996. Relhania rotundifolia. Information System for Endangered Plants (ISEP), Cape Nature Conservation.

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