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Mairia petiolata is a tufted, variably hairy, perennial plant of up to 15 cm (6 in) assigned to the family Asteraceae. Its leaves are in a ground rosette, and have a stalk of mostly 2–5 cm (4⁄5–2 in) long and an inverted egg-shaped to elliptic, 61⁄2–9 cm (2.6–4.6 in) long and 2–3 cm (4⁄5–1+1⁄5 in) wide leaf blade, with a toothed margin. It mostly has two flower heads at the tip of the branches of each erect, dark reddish brown scape. The flower heads have a bell- to cup-shaped involucre that consists of 20–24, purplish, overlapping bracts in 3–4 whorls. These protect 12–16 pink, ray florets, surrounding many yellow disc florets. This species was only seen flowering once, in December. It is known from one location in the Langeberg, Western Cape province of South Africa.
Mairia petiolata is known from only one location in the Langeberg, just to the north of Swellendam. Here it grows among a fynbos vegetation on sandstone slopes above 1,000 m (3,300 ft). It is considered critically rare because this one population is stable and does not seem to be under thread.
Paddle Fire Aster · Hairy Fire Aster · Robust Fire Aster · Fire Asters
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Mairia petiolata by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
