Authors:
Caloptilium lagascae). Common name 'armadillo's tail'. 3-5cm. A somewhat variable distinctive dwarf species forming open rosettes often flushed with bronze or brown. Leaves 4-7 X 2-4mm, oblanceolate to obovate-triangular with a mucronate tip, tightly imbricate, recurved band very stiff; visible portion of blade prominently lined with 5-9 close-set parallel, longitudinal grooves and adorned with a cobwebby indumentum on the undersurface. Flowering stems densely leafy, spreading to ascending, bearing a cauliflower-like head, l-2cm across, of many capitula, white ageing to pink. Volcanic lava, scree or sand beds, rocky or stony summit flats, often in comparative isolation. All varieties occur in Chile and Argentina; var. lagascae as described, 3000-4000m. Var. lanata appears in the south of the range and continues throughout Andean Patagonia between 100-3500m, according to latitude; it has variable amounts of woolly indumentum on the upper surface of the leaves and far more beneath. Var. globosa from 900-1000m in southern Patagonia is similar to the last but with a notably larger rounded inflorescence, 2-4.5cm across. Grows well under alpine house conditions but tends to die after flowering. [Pl.294].
