Description :

• Small, tufted, copiously branched, moss-like plants, up to 70 mm tall
• Main branches woody, leafy throughout, up to 1.5 mm diameter, pressed tightly together in rock crevices; aerial roots present
• Leaves sessile, closely imbricate, ascending, linear, margins entire, slightly involute, adaxial surface woolly
• Capitula radiate or almost disciform, 12-14-flowered, 5-6 mm long, 3-4 mm wide, 1-3 heads terminal on branches, partially concealed by uppermost leaves
• Involucral bracts 24-31; outer bracts foliaceous in upper part and along midvein, ovate; inner bracts scarious, up to 5 mm long, linear to narrowly oblong, hyaline-winged at apex
• Receptacle conical, less than 2 mm in diameter, honeycombed
• Ray florets 6 or 7, female, white; lamina 3-lobed, ± 2 mm long, 1.5 mm wide; tube 4.5-5.5 mm long
• Disc florets 7-9, bisexual, 5-lobed, wine-red, 3.5-4.0 mm long
• Anthers apically acuminate, basally tailed
• Style branches truncate with obtuse sweeping hairs apically, stigmatic surfaces separated
• Nectary a small disc between style base and cypsela
• Cypselas rod-like, ± 1 mm long, straw-coloured, surface smooth
• Pappus : bristles free, 22-28, ± 4.5 mm long, barbed in lower three-quarters, plumose in upper quarter

Nomenclature:

• Bryomorphe Harv.
  • Harvey: 151 (1863)
  • Harvey: 277 (1865)
  • Bentham: 324 (1873)
  • Levyns: 283 (1942)
  • Anderberg: 70 (1991)
  • Anderberg: 330 (1994)

Distribution & Notes:

• Southern Africa : Monotypic: Bryomorphe aretioides (Turcz.) Druce, endemic to Western Cape