| Eriocephalus | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Eriocephalus africanus [1] | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Asterids |
| Order: | Asterales |
| Family: | Asteraceae |
| Subfamily: | Asteroideae |
| Tribe: | Anthemideae |
| Genus: | Eriocephalus L. |
| Synonyms [2] | |
| |
Eriocephalus is a genus of African flowering plants in the daisy family. [3] [4]
The genus Eriocephalus appears in the Species Plantarum of Carl Linnaeus, item 926 (1753), and was dealt with by William Henry Harvey in Flora Capensis 3: 200 (1865)
The plants are more or less sclerophyllous bushes or shrublets, some species tending to be thorny, leaves silky-greyish, most species are finely villous, but some are glabrous. They have a characteristic, rather spicy aroma, especially when bruised. This has been compared to the aroma of rosemary, though it is not convincingly so. However, the plants have been used similarly in cooking. The leaves are generally ericoid, alternate or subopposite, often fascicled.
The flowering heads are small, with short, racemose or subumbellate peduncles. In a few species the flowers are solitary. The flowers are heterogamous, a few female florets in each head occurring together with several bisexual, sterile disk-florets. The head becomes very woolly after flowering, surrounded by involucral bracts. The receptacle is paleate and woolly. [5]
The various species occur mainly in South Africa and Namibia. [5]
Possibly because of its fancied resemblance to rosemary and its pleasant herbal odour, various species have been used on a small scale in cooking. Free range livestock browse the plants to various degrees, and along with various other Karooid bushes, this lends the meat a distinctive flavour and a character that some people relish in Karoo lamb for example.
Various species also have been used widely in folk medicine. The leaf of Eriocephalus africanus when lightly rubbed, has a pleasant odour. The plant yields 0.3% of a dark green petroleum ether extract, which, on steam distillation in vacuo, yields 10 to 15 per cent of a fairly viscous, yellowish, volatile oil. It has a herbaceous and balsamic odour. This species, Eriocephalus ericoides, and also Eriocephalus racemosus, have been used at the Cape for their diaphoretic and diuretic effects. [6]
Together with Metalasia muricata, Eriocephalus punctulatus has been used by the Southern Sotho to fumigate the hut of a person suffering from a cold or diarrhoea, and to fumigate a hut during illness or after a death. [6]
The Nama use a decoction of Eriocephalus umbellulatus DC., as a colic remedy, and the early Cape settlers apparently used it similarly. Extraction yields a light yellow volatile oil with a sharp, though pleasant, aromatic odour and a burning taste. Until modern times the plant has been variously used as a household medicine in the Western Province, as a tincture for heart troubles and oedema, and as a foot-bath for assorted conditions. [6]
Some species and varieties are gaining in popularity as garden plants, partly because of their herbal and culinary value. partly because of their Karooid character, and partly because of their attractive, persistently snowy appearance, both in flower and in seed. They also are valued in bird-friendly gardens, because some species of birds actively collect the woolliness of the empty seed follicles for their nests.
According to The Plant List, [7] the genus Eriocephalus contains the following accepted species:
Osteospermum, is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the Calenduleae, one of the smaller tribes of the sunflower/daisy family Asteraceae. They are known as the daisybushes or African daisies. Its species have been given several common names, including African daisy, South African daisy, Cape daisy and blue-eyed daisy.
Matricaria is a genus of flowering plants in the chamomile tribe within the sunflower family. Some of the species have the common name of "mayweed", but this name also refers to plants not in this genus.
Symphyotrichum novae-angliae is a species of flowering plant in the aster family (Asteraceae) native to central and eastern North America. Commonly known as New England aster, hairy Michaelmas-daisy, or Michaelmas daisy, it is a perennial, herbaceous plant usually between 30 and 120 centimeters tall and 60 to 90 cm wide.
Gerbera L. is a genus of plants in the Asteraceae (Compositae) family. The first scientific description of a Gerbera was made by J. D. Hooker in Curtis's Botanical Magazine in 1889 when he described Gerbera jamesonii, a South African species also known as Transvaal daisy or Barberton daisy. Gerbera is also commonly known as the African daisy.
Cineraria is a genus of flowering plants in the sunflower family, native primarily to southern Africa with a few species farther north. The genus includes herbaceous plants and small subshrubs.
Inula is a genus of about 80 species of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae, native to Europe, Asia and Africa.
Macaranga is a large genus of Old World tropical trees of the family Euphorbiaceae and the only genus in the subtribe Macaranginae. Native to Africa, Australasia, Asia and various islands of the Indian and Pacific Oceans, the genus comprises over 300 different species. It was first described as a genus in 1806, based on specimens collected on the Island of Mauritius.
Heliophila is a genus of flowering plants in the family Brassicaceae. Members of this genus are either annuals or perennials and some are popular as ornamental plants. Endemic to southern Africa, the majority of the approximately 80 species grow in South Africa, particularly the Cape Floristic Region, while a few extend into the Namib Desert.
Eriocephalus africanus is a bushy shrublet indigenous to South Africa. It has a wide distribution in the Western and Eastern Cape, and in Namaqualand. The plant has several common names in various languages. It is known as the Kapokbossie or Wild Rosemary referring to its fancied resemblance to rosemary. The superficial resemblance is in the foliage, which, though softer and not glossy, grows in a habit similar to that of the common Mediterranean rosemary, although the two species are not related.
Cotula is a genus of flowering plant in the sunflower family. It includes plants known generally as water buttons or buttonweeds.
Filago is a genus of plants in the sunflower family, native from Europe and northern Africa to Mongolia, Nepal, and Macaronesia. They are sometimes called cottonroses or cudweeds.
Garuleum is a genus of flowering plants in the sunflower family, native to southern Africa. Garuleum is one of eight genera of Calenduleae.
Elephantopus is a genus of perennial plants in the daisy family (Asteraceae).
Chrysocoma is a genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae, native to Africa and Australia.
Nolletia is a genus of flowering plants in the tribe Astereae within the family Asteraceae. The genus was named in honour of Jean-Antoine Nollet, French clergyman and physicist.
Otostegia integrifolia, more commonly known as Abyssinian rose, a plant belonging to the family Lamiaceae, is endemic to Ethiopia, in the dry evergreen woodlands of the Bale Mountains, Tigray, Gondar, Wollo and Gojjam regions, North Shewa, Kaffa and Hararghe regions, as well as in the dry and moist agroclimatic zones of the district known as Dega, at altitudes of 1,300—2,800 m. above sea-level. It also grows in Yemen, northwest of Mukalla. In Ethiopia, O. integrifolia is commonly known by its Amharic vernacular of tinjute = ጥንጁት.
Eriocephalus racemosus is a species of flowering plant in the genus Eriocephalus. It is endemic to the Cape Provinces of South Africa. It is also called the kapokbos.