SPECIES DESCRIPTION

HELICHRYSUM ITALICUM ssp. MICROPHYLLUM

Family:- COMPOSITAE/Sect. HELICHRYSUM/H. STOECHAS Group

Common Names:- Curry Plant, Italian Everlasting, Live-ever ,Sandy

Everlasting, Yellow Chaste-weed.

Synonyms:- Helichrysum microphyllum

Meaning:- Helichrysum (Gr) Golden-sun.

Italicum (L) Italian, from Italy.

Microphyllum (Gr) Small-leaved.

General description:- Plant with woody stock, very aromatic.

Stems:- 10-30(-40) cm, cm, angular, branched, spread out then ascending, grey-

felted when young

Leaves:- Alternate, simple, narrow with parallel sides, (5-)10-30(-40) mm, stalkless

(sessile) with coiled edges, covered with short, white, dense, matted hairs

(tomentose). Lower leaves 5-10 mm. Non-flowering shoots with numerous axillary

fascicles of leaves.

Flowers:- Inflorescence, yellow with only disk-florets, joined together in ovoid

flower-head from 2 to 4 mm in diam., almost 2 times longer than wide, surrounded

by membranous and persistent bracts, joined together in compact clusters, 80mm

across at most; involucre 2 mm diam., oblong-cylindrical to narrowly bell-shaped

(campanulate); bracts closely and regularly overlapping (imbricate), all, except

usually the outermost, glandular, the inner at least 5 times as long as the outer,

narrowly oblong to linear, thin and dry (scarious), the outer broadly rounded,

leathery (coriaceous), usually tomentose.

Fruit:- Small achenes with scattered white glands, with pappus.

Key features:-

1) Involucre 2 mm diam.

2) Outer bracts glandular on the outside.

3) Leaves rarely more than 10 mm.

4) Very aromatic.

Habitat:- Garigue, stony pastures and cliffs, dry mountain sides.

Distribution:- Balearic Is., Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily and Crete. Widespread and

common on Crete, mainly in the high mountain massifs up to 2100 m

Flowering time:- June-Sept.

Photo by:- Steve Lenton Katharo 15/08/2008

FAMILY AND GENUS DESCRIPTIONS

COMPOSITAE

General description:- Herbs or shrubs.

Leaves:- Alternate, opposite or arranged in a rosette (rosulate), exstipulate.

Flowers:- Small (florets), hermaphrodite, functionally male, female, or sterile, in terminal or axillary, usually stalked (pedunculate) capitula, surrounded by an involucre of bracts. Capitula solitary or in corymbose, less frequently racemose, inflorescences. Calyx-limb (pappus) absent or represented by a corona, auricle, scales, stiff hairs (setae) or simple or softly feathered (plumose) hairs. Corolla of 3 main types: (a) tubular, with (3-)4- to 5-lobed limb, actinomorphic or rarely weakly zygomorphic; (b) tubular, with a 2-lipped limb; (c) ligulate, with a short tube and the limb prolonged on one side into a usually 3- or 5-toothed ligule; female florets sometimes without a corolla or with a thread-like (filiform) corolla. Stamens 5, united with the petals (epipetalous); anthers usually united (connate) into a tube round the style, often abruptly ending in a long tail-like or appendage tip (caudate) or arrowhead-shaped (sagittate) at base and with apical appendages. Ovary inferior, single-celled (1-locular); ovule solitary, basal, bent parallel to its stalk so the micropyle is close to the point of funiculus attachment (anatropous); style solitary, with 2 stigmatic branches.

Fruit:- A cypsela (achene).

The length of the involucre is measured from the base of the capitulum. Pappus-hairs are described as plumose when the length of the branches is at least 3 times the diameter of the main hair but much shorter than it.

HELICHRYSUM

General description:- Herbs or dwarf shrubs, often lanate or tomentose.

Leaves:- Alternate, simple, entire.

Flowers:- Capitula small to medium, solitary or aggregated into compound corymbs. Involucre cylindrical-campanulate to hemispherical; involucral bracts numerous, imbricate, scarious, white or coloured at least distally. Florets yellow, all tubular, the outer usually female, the inner hermaphrodite, more numerous; rarely all hermaphrodite.

Fruit:- Pappus of rough (scabrid) or shortly feathery (plumose) hairs.

Key features:-
1) Capitula solitary or corymbose, rarely in dense clusters.
2) Female florets usually few, the hermaphrodite usually numerous.
3) Involucral bracts usually bright yellow, white or red.

Sect. HELICHRYSUM

Flowers:- Capitula in a more or less compact terminal corymb; involucre about equalling the florets; bracts yellow, rarely white, erect during anthesis, the innermost the longest.

H. STOECHAS Group

General description:- Woody perennials.

Stems:- More or less densely tomentose, erect, ascending or decumbent

Leaves:- Linear, rarely spathulate; margins revolute.

Flowers:- Inflorescence of 5 to many capitula in a more or less dense cluster. Involucre globose to cylindric-campanulate or cylindrical before anthesis, shining, yellow.

Fruit:- Achenes dark brown.