Yellow everlasting

This Helichrysum is a robust, biennial, strong-smelling herb, the stem is simple or sparsely branched from the base, 0.3-1 m tall, and young parts are thinly white-hairy. The leaves are grouped at the stem base, but they wither at the time of flowering. They are up to 120 x 150 mm and elliptic with a clasping base. The upper surface is sparsely hairy, whereas the lower one is thinly white-woolly. Many flowerheads are borne in a large, leafy, spreading, umbrella-like inflorescence. The i nvolucral bracts (surrounding the flowerheads ) are in 8 to 9 series, imbricate, the inner ones much longer than the flowers. The achenes (fruits) are 0.75-1 mm long and glabrous. Each has a set of pappus bristles whose bases cohere lightly by means of tiny hairs. H. foetidum is much confused with H. cooperi which has leaves that are decurrent on the stem and lack the white wool underneath. It is also mistaken for H. decorum which overlaps in distribution from the Cape Peninsula to the Bashee River mouth on the Transkeian coast and inland to the Baziya mountains in the Engcobo District. H. decorum is slightly aromatic when fresh but lacks the strong, persistent, foetid odour of H. foetidum. The flowerheads of the latter are smaller than those of H. decorum. H. foetidum leaves are always thinly white woolly below, whereas those of H. decorum are woolly on one or both surfaces. The flowering time is from October to May.