Previously Vernonia hirsuta Both leaves and fluffy purple flower-heads look quite beautiful amongst grasses and other grassland forbs. Meter high silky heads appear in large colonies in grassland, scrub and on forest margins in summer rainfall regions, from spring to midsummer. Stems and leaves are hairy; hence ‘hirsuta’ and deeply indented veins create the lovely quilted look indicated by the common name. Flowers can range in colour from purple to magenta and, on the odd occasion, white or pink. This species is easily grown by sowing the silvery seeds that following a flower display. This little specimen is tucked in close to a protective rock in Midlands’s grassland and is widespread and abundant, and is visited by beetles, bees and butterflies. Not endemic to South Africa Provincial distribution Eastern Cape, Free State, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, North West