Description:

• Shrublets, slightly greyish-woolly
• Leaves alternate, ericoid, somewhat twisted, in fascicles, involute, adaxially tomentose
• Capitula discoid, 16-45-flowered with florets bisexual and fertile, solitary at apices of branches or 2 or 3 together and corymbose
• Involucre ellipsoid to campanulate, bracts in ± 10 rows, lanceolate, tips acute or obtuse, usually reddish, woolly on backs; stereome undivided
• Receptacle flat, epaleate or with a few scattered paleae between outer florets; paleae ± as long as corolla, sometimes sparsely ciliate
• Ray florets 0
• Disc florets sometimes widened above, with 5 oblong lobes, lobes hairy on outer side
• Anthers tailed, with a lanceolate, apical appendage
• Style terete, somewhat swollen at base, sometimes seated on annular disc, with linear, truncate branches
• Cypselas ± terete, 4- or 5-angled, hairy on ribs, hairs long and unicellular, sometimes also multicellular, gland-tipped hairs; annulus well-developed
• Pappus of shortly barbellate bristles as long as corolla and sometimes overtopping

Nomenclature:

• Lachnospermum Willd.
  • Willdenow: 1787 (1803)
  • Harvey: 272 (1865)
  • Pillans: 87 (1954)
  • Hilliard & Burtt: 218 (1981)
  • Anderberg: 74 (1991)
  • Anderberg: 331 (1994)
• Carpholoma D.Don
  • Don: 555 (1826).
• Erythropogon DC.
  • Candolle: 254 (1838).
• Tuloclinia Rafin.
  • Rafinesque: 119 (1838)

Distribution & Notes:

• Southern Africa: Species 3, endemic to Western Cape