DISTRIBUTION:
Grows everywhere, but especially in vleis. Flowers whenever it rains. Western Cape around Boland, Eastern Cape, Karoo, Free State, Gauteng and Mpumalanga. Not found in Kwazulu – Natal.
Botanical description: General: A soft-leaved, decumbent to erect herbaceous plant about 40 cm high. A stout woody rhizome with numerous stems.
Leaves: Alternate, crowded at the base.
Flowers: Yellow disc florets. White to pale purplish pink ray florets.
Seed: A round woolly puffball seed head. Seeds are woolly.
TOXIC PRINCIPLE:
A furanosesquiterpenoid.
SYNDROMES:
Hepatogenous photosensitivity primarily due to liver parenchymal damage.
SYSTEMS AFFECTED:
Liver and respiratory systems.
CLINICAL SIGNS:
• Signs can occur within 3 days of introduction to camp.
• Icterus, secondary photosensitivity
• Colic, rumen stasis, constipation, tenesmus• Dyspnoea and “lugdikkop”
• Foam at nose, marked inspiration and expiration.
NECROPSY:
Macroscopical findings:
• Clear macroscopic damage to liver. Liver swollen, friable and yellow brown.
Accentuated lobulation (dark red zones in most gives a mosaic appearance).
• Icterus, gall bladder oedema.• Nephrosis.
HISTOPATHOLOGY:
• Liver - Lesions tend to be peripheral in acute poisoning
• Subacute - range of changes• Send in liver specimens for histopathology.