''Eriocephalus'' is a genus of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

s in the daisy family.

General description

The genus ''Eriocephalus'' appears in the ''

Species Plantarum ' (Latin for "The Species of Plants") is a book by Carl Linnaeus, originally published in 1753, which lists every species of plant known at the time, classified into genera. It is the first work to consistently apply binomial names and was the ...

'' of

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

, item 926 (1753), and was dealt with by

William Henry Harvey William Henry Harvey, FRS FLS (5 February 1811 – 15 May 1866) was an Irish botanist and phycologist who specialised in algae. Biography Harvey was born at Summerville near Limerick, Ireland, in 1811, the youngest of 11 children. His father ...

in Flora Capensis 3: 200 (1865) The plants are more or less

sclerophyll Sclerophyll is a type of vegetation that is adapted to long periods of dryness and heat. The plants feature hard leaf, leaves, short Internode (botany), internodes (the distance between leaves along the stem) and leaf orientation which is paral ...

ous bushes or shrublets, some species tending to be thorny, leaves silky-greyish, most species are finely villous, but some are

glabrous Glabrousness (from the Latin ''glaber'' meaning "bald", "hairless", "shaved", "smooth") is the technical term for a lack of hair, down, setae, trichomes or other such covering. A glabrous surface may be a natural characteristic of all or part of ...

. They have a characteristic, rather spicy aroma, especially when bruised. This has been compared to the aroma of

rosemary ''Salvia rosmarinus'' (), commonly known as rosemary, is a shrub with fragrant, evergreen, needle-like leaves and white, pink, purple, or blue flowers, native plant, native to the Mediterranean Region, Mediterranean region. Until 2017, it was kn ...

, though it is not convincingly so. However, the plants have been used similarly in cooking. The leaves are generally ericoid,

alternate Alternative or alternate may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Alternative (''Kamen Rider''), a character in the Japanese TV series ''Kamen Rider Ryuki'' * ''The Alternative'' (film), a 1978 Australian television film * ''The Alternative ...

or sub opposite, 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 Heterogamy is a term applied to a variety of distinct phenomena in different scientific domains. Usually having to do with some kind of difference, "hetero", in reproduction, "gamy". See below for more specific senses. Science Reproductive biolog ...

, 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.Dyer, R. Allen, The Genera of Southern African Flowering Plants”. , 1975

Distribution

The various species occur mainly in South Africa and Namibia.

Uses

Possibly because of its fancied resemblance to

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

Karoo The Karoo ( ; from the Afrikaans borrowing of the South Khoekhoe !Orakobab or Khoemana word ''ǃ’Aukarob'' "Hardveld") is a semi-desert natural region of South Africa. No exact definition of what constitutes the Karoo is available, so its ext ...

id 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 Perspiration, also known as sweating, is the production of fluids secreted by the sweat glands in the skin of mammals. Two types of sweat glands can be found in humans: eccrine glands and apocrine glands. The eccrine sweat glands are distri ...

and

diuretic A diuretic () is any substance that promotes diuresis, the increased production of urine. This includes forced diuresis. A diuretic tablet is sometimes colloquially called a water tablet. There are several categories of diuretics. All diuretics in ...

effects.Watt, John Mitchell; Breyer-Brandwijk, Maria Gerdina: The Medicinal and Poisonous Plants of Southern and Eastern Africa 2nd ed Pub. E & S Livingstone 1962 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. 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. 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.

Species

According to The Plant List,
as consulted June 2012 the genus ''Eriocephalus'' contains the following accepted species:

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5389297 Eriocephalus, Asteraceae genera Flora of Africa Plants used in traditional African medicine Taxonomy articles created by Polbot