Helichrysum bracteatum, (Vent.) Andrews

Tutin, T. G., Heywood, V. H., Burges, N. A., Moore, D. M., Valentine, D. H., Walters, S. M. & Webb, D. A., 1976, Flora Europaea. Volume 4. Plantaginaceae to Compositae (and Rubiaceae), Cambridge University Press : 131

16. H. bracteatum (Vent.) Andrews , Bot. Reposit. 6: sub t. 428 (1805).

Annual 40-120 cm, not aromatic. Stems erect, robust, branched, scabrid. Leaves 50-120 cm, oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, shortly petiolate, green and more or less glabrous on both surfaces. Capitula solitary, 25-70 mm in diameter; involucral bracts coriaceous below, scarious and shining above; outer short, suborbicular; middle lanceolate; inner narrow, acuminate. Achenes glabrous. Cultivatedfor ornament and locally naturalized in Spain. [Hs.] (Australia.)

Some variants have golden-yellow involucral bracts and others have the outer bracts red and the rest white. H. petiolare Hilliard & B. L. Burtt , Notes Roy. Bot. Gard. Edinb. 32: 357 (1973) ( H. petiolatum auct., non (L.) DC.), a white-tomentose woody perennial 20-40 cm, with ovate leaves 15-25 mm, abruptly narrowed into the petiole, and terminal corymbs of creamy-white capitula 3 mm in diameter, is more or less naturalized in hedges and by roads in W.C. Portugal. It is commonly cultivated for its ornamental foliage under the name of Gnaphalium lanatum hort. and is native of S. Africa.