Annual or perennial herbs. Involucral bracts scarious to coriaceous, spreading to reflexed at maturity. Floral bracts often white-hairy towards the tip. Flowers borne on a central receptacle; male and female mixed or female around the edge. Sepals free or ± connate in male flowers, usually free in the female. Petals usually with a black gland near or at the tip, often white-hairy at the tip. Male petals all small or one enlarged and exserted. Male flowers with stamens (in our species) 6 or 4, twice as many as the petals; anthers black or white. Female flowers with petals free. Seeds ellipsoid, smooth or distinctively patterned. Derivation of name: from Greek: erion meaning wool, caulos meaning stem Worldwide: c. 400 species in tropical and warm regions of the world; some temperate. Malawi: 17 taxa. |
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| Species | FZ divisions | Content |
| abyssinicum Hochst. | C | Description, Image |
| afzelianum Wikstr. ex Körn. | N | |
| buchananii Ruhland | N,S | |
| elegantulum Engl. | S | |
| maculatum Schinz | S | |
| maronderanum S.M. Phillips | N | |
| mesanthemoides Ruhland | N | |
| mulanjeanum S.M. Phillips [NrEnd] | S | |
| mutatum N.E. Br. var. mutatum | N,C,S | |
| pictum Fritsch | N | Description, Image |
| schimperi Ruhland | N | Description, Image |
| selousii S.M. Phillips | S | |
| sonderianum Körn. | S | Description, Image |
| stenophyllum R.E. Fr. | N | Description, Image |
| teusczii Engl. & Ruhland ex Ruhland | N | |
| transvaalicum N.E. Br. subsp. hanningtonii (N.E. Br.) S.M. Phillips | C | |
| zambesiense Ruhland | S |