Mairia burchellii

The involucre is broadly bell-shaped or more like a spinning top, 11–16 mm (0.43–0.63 in) high and 14–20 mm (0.55–0.79 in) in diameter. It consists thirty to thirty four purplish bracts, with a pointy or tapering tip, that are arranged in three or four overlapping whorls, the surfaces with glands and further variably woolly or hairless, fringed by a row of long hairs. The outermost bracts are narrowly oval, 4–6 mm (0.16–0.24 in) long and 1–11⁄2 mm (0.04–0.06 in) wide. The innermost bracts are narrowly inverted egg-shaped to narrowly ellipse-shaped, 8–10 mm (0.31–0.39 in) long and 11⁄2–2 mm (0.06–0.08 in) wide, with a papery margin and a fringe of long hairs.[2]

The involucre envelops the base of fourteen to sixteen bright violet, pink, mauve or white ray florets of about 9 mm (0.35 in) long, with a tube that sometimes carries some glandular hairs, and a mostly line-shaped strap, with four to six veins and ending in three teeth. The style of the ray florets is 5–6 mm (0.20–0.24 in) long and the two branches in which it splits near the tip are often purplish, elliptic in shape, often uneven or with several 11⁄2–2 mm long with a blunt tip. The ray florets contain staminodes that do not produce pollen. The ray florets encircle many yellow disc florets with a corolla of 6–7 mm (0.24–0.28 in) long, not or scarcely longer than pappus, the tube nearer the base hairless or with some scattered glandular hairs, the five lobes at the top mostly recurved and loosely hairy.[2]

The disc florets contain both ovaries topped by a forked style and five fertile anthers that form a tube around the style shaft. These anthers are 1.2–1.6 mm (0.047–0.063 in) long, and have narrowly triangular appendages at their tip. The style of the tube florets is 51⁄2–6 mm (0.22 in) long and extend beyond the mouth of the floret. The style branches are dark red or purplish in colour, elliptic in shape, 0.7–1.4 mm (0.028–0.055 in) long, sometimes unevenly malformed or there are even three branches. The appendages at the tip of each style branche are deltoid in shape, about 0.3 mm (0.012 in) wide and 0.2 mm (0.0079 in) long. The corollas of both ray and disc florets are surrounded by a row of hairs called pappus. The eventually dark brown, dry, one-seeded, indehiscent fruits called cypselae are cylindrical to spindle-shaped, about 71⁄2 mm long and 1.8 mm (0.071 in) wide, with four to seven prominent, narrow, cream-coloured ribs. The cypselae are covered with many shiny yellowish glands. These are also covered in long, silvery silky or dull yellow or brownish twin hairs of about 0.4–0.8 mm (0.016–0.031 in) long, which have distinctly unequally long, pointy branches. The pappus is arranged in two whorls. The outer whorl consists of a few delicate, smallish, dirty white or straw-coloured, free, barbed bristles of up to 3 mm (0.12 in) long. The colour of the inner pappus is the same, although sometimes with a pale purple wash. It consists of barbed, feathery bristles of 61⁄2–8 mm (1⁄4–1⁄3 in) long, that form a ring at the very base.[2]

M. burchellii is recognised by the rigid, erect, often dark red or brownish, linear or narrowly elliptic or very narrowly obovate leaves. During flowering time, (January) February to May (June), no or at most two leaves are present, as the leaves from the previous growing season are burnt down and only the spiky petiole-like bases are persistent. In M. burchellii, as in M. coriacea, flowering is induced by fire. Plants collected before or long after flowering, usually have many leaves (up to 30) and leaves are only present from June onwards. Plants of M. burchellii without leaves resemble M. coriacea plants without leaves and it is almost impossible to separate the two taxa in this condition. M. burchellii can be distinguished from M. coriacea by the linear or narrowly elliptic or very narrowly obovate leaves with a single main vein and entire margins; in M. coriacea, the leaves are mostly obovate, sometimes elliptic to broadly elliptic with 3 to 5 main veins and entire or apically few, broad dentate margins. Although M. coriacea mostly has solitary or 2-headed synflorescences while M. burchellii usually has corymbosely arranged capitula, solitary capitula are also sometimes found in M. burchellii.