Gnidia involucrata Steud. ex A. Rich.

involucrata: with an involucre, referring to the persistent whorl of broad, overlapping bracts subtending the inflorescence.

Perennial herb, up to c. 1 m high with numerous stems growing from a very thick woody rhizome. Stems and branches hairless, green or reddish or flushed brownish-purple. Leaves alternate, sessile or very shortly petiolate, linear, elliptic or narrowly obovate, 1-3 cm long, light green, blue-green or sometimes reddish, hairless or sometimes with scattered hairs when young; midrib visible beneath. Inflorescence a terminal or axillary head, 1-2 cm in diameter, 4-40-flowered. Bracts usually 5-6, yellowish-green or often reddish to dark brown, elliptic, broadly to almost round, leaf-like, hairless, persistent. Flowers 4-merous (rarely 5-merous), orange-yellow,pink to red or brownish. Calyx tube up to 14 mm long, hairless to densely pubescent above the articulation.

Angola, Nigeria, Cameroon, CAR, DRC, Uganda, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe.