Strapleaf Fire-Aster

Mairia burchellii is a perennial herbaceous plant of up to 16 cm (6+1⁄2 in) high. It has a robust rhizome, that sprouts up to thirty five succulent, dark brown or sepia-coloured roots of up to 20 cm (8 in) long and 2–4 mm (0.079–0.157 in) thick. Often, the charred remains of the bases of old leaves are present. The bright lime green to reddish-brown leaves have a leathery consistency and are all set in a rosette. Their number varies strongly over time from none or few to up to thirty during flowering. The firm, upright leaf blades are line-shaped, narrowly ellipse-shaped or very narrowly inverted egg-shaped, 4–12 cm (1+3⁄5–4+4⁄5 in) long and 2–5 mm (0.079–0.197 in) wide, with a pointy tip and at the base gradually narrowing to a very long leaf stalk. Both surfaces of the leaf blade are hairless, except for the inner side of the leaf stalk that is set with silvery woolly hairs. The leaves have entire, flat margins or these are rarely rolled downwards, with single main vein and sometimes with two indistinct marginal veins. From each plant, between one and seven inflorescence stalks emerge, that each carry between one and eight flower heads each on a relatively long flower head stalk, together 6–16 cm (2+2⁄5–6+1⁄5 in) long. …

Mairia burchellii can be found in the wild only in the southwest of the Western Cape province of South Africa, from Ceres and the Piketberg in the north to the southern tip of the Cape Peninsula in the west, through the Hottentots Holland Mountains, east to Bredasdorp on the Angulhas plains. It grows in fynbos vegetation, on stony and sandy plateaus and mountain slopes.