Craspedia blepharia

Detailed description

Evergreen, perennial, rhizomatous herb with 1 flowering scape per rosette; either single rosettes or clumps of rosettes. Rhizome with a loose, fibrous root system of glabrescent thick and very fine roots; rhizome 21–57 mm long; thick roots c. 10, straight, with lateral roots, dark brown; longest roots 22–120 mm long and c. 1 mm in diameter; fine roots much fewer and shorter than thick roots, entangled. Rosette leaves 4–9, (21–)27–77 mm long and 8–26 mm wide, petiolate, moderate olive green; petiole 11–35 mm long and 3–8 mm wide at narrowest point; lamina smooth, fleshy, c. 1.2 mm thick, 16–41(–48) mm long and 8–26 mm wide, spatulate [length-to-width ratio c. (1.8–)2–3(–5.3):1; widest point at c. (1/2–)3/4 of length]; base attenuate, gradually narrowing to a ± indistinct petiole; apex obtuse, flat, apiculate, tinged dark red; lamina veins inconspicuous, except for prominent midrib; both lamina surfaces covered with a hispid indumentum of long trichomes, very dense adaxially, sparse abaxially; trichomes uniseriate, multiseptate, translucent, usually slightly brown or colourless, usually curved, 2.2–3 mm long, occasionally with a very thin curly, flagellate tip; in between long trichomes, numerous short, stipitate, glandular trichomes, 0.1–0.2 mm long; leaf margin thickly covered with long trichomes with curly, flagellate tips; leaf remnants usually retained as a fibrous tunic surrounding the current season’s rosettes for several seasons. Scape bracts 3–7, sessile, like rosette leaves, but smaller and narrower, becoming progressively smaller distally; basal bracts sometimes semi-amplexicaul; bracts at half-length of scape oblanceolate, 12–23 mm long and 4–11 mm wide. Scapes at anthesis (71–)130–230(–310) mm high and at the base 0.9–2.5 mm in diameter, green to dark red, smooth, sparsely covered with curly, flagellate aseptate trichomes and short, stipitate, glandular trichomes. Inflorescence a solitary, terminal glomerule; in early flowering hemispherical, 14–21 mm wide and (9–)12–21 mm high in full flower, changing gradually to globose after anthesis, with c. 40 homogamous, discoid capitula and a total of c. 240 florets; glomerule bracts c. 5–10 mm long, ovate to elliptic, herbaceous, bright green, with a scarious, entire, translucent margin, medium brown, 1.0–1.8 mm wide at apex, as long as outer florets, covered sparsely with curly, flagellate aseptate trichomes and densely with short, stipitate, glandular trichomes. Capitula subsessile, each with 5–6(–7) florets, c. 4.7 mm long; main phyllary of involucre c. 6 mm long, obovate, herbaceous, bright green, with scarious, entire, translucent margin, medium brown in upper half, 2.4 mm wide at apex, covered sparsely with curly, flagellate aseptate trichomes. Corolla white, 5-lobed, c. 3.7 mm long; tube c. 2.5 mm long, throat c. 0.7 mm long and 1.5 mm in diameter, and lobes c. 0.5 mm long; lobes slightly reflexed at anthesis, glandular. Style arms white, truncate, with brush of papillae at apex. Anther tube greenish yellow. Pollen greenish yellow. Pappus with 12–16 plumose bristles 3.2–3.6 mm long, white, arranged in 1 row; apical pappus bristle plumes clavate. Achenes obovate, light nut-brown, 1.5–2 mm long and 0.8–1 mm wide, densely covered with antrorse twin trichomes, 0.2–0.75 mm long, and medium densely with short, glandular trichomes 0.09–0.15 mm long; pappus-to-achene length ratio 1.9:1–2.2:1.