Authors: Cav.  

Botanical Description

Very variable woody-based trailer, dinger or forming a freestanding bush with stems 8-30cm long. Leaves dense, glaucous, 2-3cm by 2-10mm, linear-lanceolate, linear or rarely elliptic, revolute and boldly toothed, acute with a small tendril on those above, decurrent, extending to form wings on the stems below, white-tomentose to somewhat mealy grey beneath. Floral involucres tubular-campanulate with four to five series of ovate to oblong bracts and eight to ten ray florets 1.5-2.5cm by 5mm, white, pale or deeper yellow, with or without a red reverse, or tawny orange self. Andes of Chile and Argentina, from the fringe of the Atacama to Santiago, in montane scrub to coarse mixed alpine steppe on dry rocky slopes at 1600-3500m.