Atop of

Mount Kenya Mount Kenya ( Kikuyu: ''Kĩrĩnyaga'', Kamba, ''Ki Nyaa'') 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 (). Mount Kenya is loc ...

''Senecio keniophytum'' is one of the

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found els ...

groundsel (

Senecio ''Senecio'' is a genus of flowering plants in the daisy family (Asteraceae) that includes ragworts and groundsels. Variously circumscribed taxonomically, the genus ''Senecio'' is one of the largest genera of flowering plants. Description Morp ...

) found at high altitudes in

Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

, such as the Afro-alpine zone of

, but not one of the giant ''

Dendrosenecio ''Dendrosenecio'' is a genus of flowering plants in the sunflower family. It is a segregate of ''Senecio'', in which it formed the subgenus ''Dendrosenecio''. Its members, the giant groundsels, are native to the higher altitude zones of ten mo ...

'' 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. Bracts 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 In botanical terminology, a phyllary, also known an involucral bract or tegule, is a single bract of the involucre of a composite flower. The involucre is the grouping of bracts together. Phyllaries are reduced leaf-like structures that form one ...

also black tipped, to from densely hairy to no hair at all. Twelve to twenty bright

yellow Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In ...

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:

Achene An achene (; ), also sometimes called akene and occasionally achenium or achenocarp, is a type of simple dry fruit produced by many species of flowering plants. Achenes are monocarpellate (formed from one carpel) and indehiscent (they do not op ...

s long, ribbed with no hairs. Pappus long. ;Roots: A horizontal plant with stems that send shoots above and roots below.

Description

Distribution

References

External links