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Helichrysum stoechas (L.) DC.

Eng.: Eternal flower, common shrubby everlasting, God’s flower.   Spa.: Siempreviva, manzanilla borde, perpetuas de monte.   Fre.: Immortelle des sables.   Ara.: Chegara, arfiya.

Subshrub, evergreen, hermaphrodite, up to 0.6(1) m in height, erect, highly ramose from the base, with older stems clearly woody at the base, with brown-greyish bark; the floral stems largely exceed the vegetative stems, although in areas with high sea winds (subsp. caespitosum) this may be a more variable character due to the effect of the sea mist. Upper part of the stems slightly lignified, sometimes entirely herbaceous, covered by a white tomentum. Leaves (1.5-3 × 0.1-0.3 cm) linear (sometimes narrowly spatulate), entire, obtuse, sessile, slightly amplexicaul, with such a revolute margin that many seem cylindrical, glabrescent and greenish on the upper side, tomentose-whitish on the underside (tomentose on both sides in subsp. caespitosum). Inflorescence in terminal capitula, 4-7 mm in diameter, with tubular yellow flowers, densely grouped in a type of corymb 1.5-6 cm in diameter. Involucre globose or campanulate, 4-7 mm wide, with many bracts slightly imbricate, outer bracts papery, that do not open after fruiting. Flowers much darker than pale involucral bracts. Fruit a small achene with a glandular surface, with pappus. 2n = 28.

Flowering:

June to September.

 

Fruiting:

August to November.

Habitat:

Rocky and sandy terrain in coastal and subcoastal regions.

Distribution:

Mediterranean region. In North Africa it is a widely distributed species across the Mediterranean area, from Morocco to Egypt. However, it is difficult to trace a reliable map of distribution for the species, since so many taxa of the genus have been cited, both infraspecific (subspecies, varieties and forms of H. stoechas) and intraspecific, whose taxonomic position has undergone different readjustments in the past few decades.

Conservation status:

It is relatively common and widely distributed. Currently, in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, H. stoechas is listed as Least Concern (LC) at global level (Khela, 2013).

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