Achyrocline satureioides

Achyrocline satureioides, known throughout southern South America as macela or marcela, is an aromatic perennial subshrub of the Asteraceae native to Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Argentina, and Bolivia. Plants form erect, much-branched stems 30-80 cm tall arising from a woody base, the herbage densely clothed in soft white woolly hairs that lend a silvery-grey hue. The alternate, sessile leaves are linear-lanceolate, 2-5 cm long and 2-5 mm wide, with entire, slightly revolute margins. Numerous small, ovoid, golden-yellow flower heads about 4-5 mm long are crowded in dense terminal corymbose clusters; each head contains only a few tubular florets surrounded by overlapping straw-coloured, chaffy, papery phyllaries that give the dried inflorescence an everlasting quality and a sweet, camomile-like fragrance. Flowering occurs in late summer and autumn — traditionally harvested at Easter for medicinal use. The species favours open grassy slopes, campo, sandy roadsides, and disturbed pastures.