Oedera humilis (Lessing) N.G.Bergh, 2018

Bergh, Nicola G., Bentley, Joanne & Verboom, George Anthony, 2018, Classification of the Relhania generic group (Asteraceae, Gnaphalieae) revisited using molecular phylogenetic analysis, Phytotaxa 344 (2), pp. 101-132 : 121

15. Oedera humilis (Lessing) N.G.Bergh , comb. nov.

Basionym: Nestlera humilis Lessing (1832: 372) . Rosenia humilis (Lessing) Bremer (1976b: 108) .—Type: Herb. Willdenow No. 16149 (B, holotype).

Section VII: Oedera sect. Oedera

Type species: Oedera capensis (Linnaeus) Druce

Description: low, sparsely- to densely-branched shrublets, branches closely leafy especially in upper part, leaves imbricate, narrowly subulate to lanceolate-ovate, apiculate with sharp, pungent mucro, sometimes conduplicate, erect to strongly recurved, margins flat but slightly thickened and cartilaginous, with silky hairs on the margins especially on involucral leaves (leaves forming the pseudo-involucre), glabrous or hirsute or with glandular trichomes, leaf surface leathery, sometimes striate, margins frequently bearing large regular tooth-like trichomes. About 5–25 capitula grouped together in a terminal, umbel-like syncephalium, surrounded by a pseudo-involucre of leaves; involucral leaves generally broader and more densely hairy than vegetative leaves; individual capitula sessile, discernable only on dissection or due to centripetal floral maturation, involucral bracts thin, scarious, pale or translucent, tightly imbricate and apically lacerate; individual capitula few-flowered, rays 1–6 per capitulum, usually only the outer female florets of the peripheral capitula with expanded ligules; in the central capitula, peripheral female florets mini-ligulate or tubular (heads disciform), sometimes bearing ligules intermediate in size. Disc florets 3–10 per capitulum, perfect or functionally male (Oe. laevis ). Pappus of scales, short and more-or-less connate and lacerate, or bristle-like.

Cytology: 2n = 14 (Oe. imbricata Lamarck [1786: 344] ; Anderberg & Källersjö, 1988).

Note: The species in section Oedera are currently under revision by the first author, and what follows below represents a preliminary list pending the outcome of further taxonomic and nomenclatural investigations.