Atop of
Mount KenyaMount Kenya is the highest mountain in Kenya and the second highest in Africa, after Kilimanjaro. The highest peaks of the mountain are Batian , Nelion and Point Lenana...
Senecio keniophytum is one of the endemic groundsel (
SenecioSenecio is a genus of the daisy family that includes ragworts and groundsels. The flower heads are normally rayed, completely yellow, and the heads are borne in branched clusters...
) found at high altitudes in
KenyaThe Republic of Kenya is a country in East Africa. Lying along the Indian Ocean, at the equator, Kenya is bordered by Ethiopia , Somalia , Tanzania , Uganda plus Lake Victoria , and Sudan . The capital city is Nairobi. Kenya spans an area about 85% the size of France or Texas...
, such as the Afro-alpine zone of
Mount KenyaMount Kenya is the highest mountain in Kenya and the second highest in Africa, after Kilimanjaro. The highest peaks of the mountain are Batian , Nelion and Point Lenana...
, but not one of the giant
DendrosenecioDendrosenecio is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Asteraceae. It is a segregate of Senecio, in which it formed the subgenus Dendrosenecio...
that also live there.
A creeping perennial whose flowering branches stand "tall" at to in a land where its relatives can be tall, tough
Senecio keniophytum manages to live in the same locales without dominating the landscape.
Leaves and stems: A branching plant with tough densely white stems with leaves attached directly to them.
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Atop of
Mount KenyaMount Kenya is the highest mountain in Kenya and the second highest in Africa, after Kilimanjaro. The highest peaks of the mountain are Batian , Nelion and Point Lenana...
Senecio keniophytum is one of the endemic groundsel (
SenecioSenecio is a genus of the daisy family that includes ragworts and groundsels. The flower heads are normally rayed, completely yellow, and the heads are borne in branched clusters...
) found at high altitudes in
KenyaThe Republic of Kenya is a country in East Africa. Lying along the Indian Ocean, at the equator, Kenya is bordered by Ethiopia , Somalia , Tanzania , Uganda plus Lake Victoria , and Sudan . The capital city is Nairobi. Kenya spans an area about 85% the size of France or Texas...
, such as the Afro-alpine zone of
Mount KenyaMount Kenya is the highest mountain in Kenya and the second highest in Africa, after Kilimanjaro. The highest peaks of the mountain are Batian , Nelion and Point Lenana...
, but not one of the giant
DendrosenecioDendrosenecio is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Asteraceae. It is a segregate of Senecio, in which it formed the subgenus Dendrosenecio...
that also live there.
Description
A creeping perennial whose flowering branches stand "tall" at to in a land where its relatives can be tall, tough
Senecio keniophytum manages to live in the same locales without dominating the landscape.
Leaves and stems: A branching plant with tough densely white stems with leaves attached directly to them. Long and oblong leaves are a little less than long and wide with purplish bases. Leave edges have teeth and leaf surfaces have green and white hairs on the upper side and a dense matting of white hair and bald midrib on the lower side.
Flowers: The radiate flower heads are solitary sometimes two or three together and stand up and flower stalks cottony with hairs.
BractIn botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis, or cone scale...
s about to long and about diameter. A whorl of another set of eight to twelve bracts dark tipped and to long also with hairs. Twelve to twenty phyllaries also black tipped, to from densely hairy to no hair at all. Twelve to twenty bright
yellowYellow is the color evoked by light that stimulates both the L and M cone cells of the retina about equally, with no significant stimulation of the S cone cells. Light with a wavelength of 570–580 nm is yellow, as is light with a suitable mixture of somewhat longer and shorter wavelengths...
ray florets, tubes long, rays x with four veins. A dull-yellow to brown disc floret, corolla long, all hairless and expanding from the middle.
Fruits and reproduction:
AcheneAn achene is a type of simple dry fruit produced by many species of flowering plants. Achenes are monocarpellate and indehiscent . Achenes contain a single seed that nearly fills the pericarp, but does not adhere to it...
s long, ribbed with no hairs.
PappusIn flower heads of the plant family Asteraceae, Pappus is the part of an individual disk or ray floret surrounding the base of the corolla, equivalent to the calyx of a non-compound flower. The pappus may be like bristles or tiny hairs, teeth, or scales, and can be too small to see without...
long.
Roots: A horizontal plant with stems that send shoots above and roots below.
Distribution
Endemic to Mount Kenya, at altitudes of to .