Authors:
Dense domed, prickly cushions satisfyingly compact and neat, 15-45cm high. Leaves dense, spine-tipped, inrolled and silky-downy on both surfaces, very narrowly linear, l-3cm long. Involucres solitary, long-campanulate, 1.7-2.5cm by 1cm at the branch tips, appearing to sit on the surface of the cushion, the outer bracts ovate, the inner ones linear-lanceolate, all spine-tipped and glabrous except for the silky-downy margins, tawny golden-orange as are the florets. Argentina, Chubut and Santa Cruz as a member of the Patagonian 'hedgehog' steppe from 200-1000m. A fine plant worth every effort to establish in cultivation. An even more desirable dwarf form only 5-10cm tall was formerly known as C. erinacea forma pulvinaris (from Cerro Policia). [Pl.110]
