Helichrysum petiolare

Helichrysum petiolare is a shrubby perennial of the Asteraceae family, native to South Africa, mainly from the Cape region and the coastal and mountainous areas of the south of the country, where it colonizes rocky slopes, edges of fynbos forests, and sun-exposed embankments. In its native country, it can form large, very dense covering masses, as evidenced by its naturally expansive behavior.

It is a plant with vigorous and rapid development, with branched, flexible, and slightly drooping stems, reaching 50 to 100 cm in height and spreading over a considerable width. Its most striking distinctive feature is its foliage: the leaves are oval to heart-shaped, distinctly petiolate, which is precisely recalled by the name petiolare, and covered on both sides with a dense white-silver felt that gives the entire plant a luminous, homogeneous, and very decorative pearl gray color even when not in bloom.

The flower heads are small, cream to yellowish-white, not very spectacular, grouped in loose corymbs. In its natural habitat, flowering mainly extends from summer to the austral autumn. In cultivation under our latitudes, it blooms little and late, and it is mainly for its silvery foliage that the plant is cultivated.

The species is frost-sensitive and does not withstand temperatures below -3 or -4°C. Outside areas with very mild winters, it is treated as a summer annual or overwintered in a cold greenhouse away from frost. It requires full sun, well-drained soil, moderate watering, and withstands heat and drought well. It is highly appreciated in gardening for the composition of pots and summer beds, where its silvery foliage plays a linking and contrasting role with the colorful flowers of neighboring plants.