Gazania ciliaris
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Asterales
Family: Asteraceae
Genus: Gazania
Species:
G. ciliaris
Binomial name
Gazania ciliaris

Gazania ciliaris is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae, native predominantly to the Western Cape province, South Africa, where it occurs from Vanrhynsdorp to the Eastern Cape near Joubertina.[1]

Description

The Gazania ciliaris involucre with its distinctively truncate base, and ciliate outer bracts

The flowers are variable in colour (usually yellow-to-orange), and born on distinctively setose-to-ciliate (hairy) petioles. The flower's involucre is glabrous and a sub-cylindrical shape, with a distinctive fleshy truncate base.

The involucre bracts/scales are a distinguishing characteristics of this species. At the top of the involucre, it usually has two or three rows of terminal scales. These are finely acuminate and the margins of the inner row are distinctly ciliate. Along the length of the involucre, it can also have several parietal scales, which are usually deltoid acuminate and somewhat arranged in a row around the involucre (a characteristic shared with Gazania linearis).

The leaves are linear or linear-lanceolate, and can be either simple or pinnate. The upper leaf surface is usually rough and the lower surface is tomentose (white woolly). There are usually distinctive spine-like cilia/hairs along the lower leaf margins.

In its growth form, G. ciliaris is a compact herbaceous perennial, and forms basal rosettes with only relatively short stems. The bases of old dead leaves usually do not persist around the stem as they do in Gazania linearis.[2][3]

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gazania ciliaris.
  1. ↑ "Red List Entry". SANBI.
  2. ↑ Mucina, L., Howis, S. & Barker, N. (2009). Globally grown, but poorly known: Species limits and biogeography of Gazania Gaertn. (Asteraceae) inferred from chloroplast and nuclear DNA sequence data. Taxon 58:871-882. 10.1002/tax.583015. p.879
  3. ↑ Magee, A.R., Boatwright, J.S. & Mucina, L. (2011). Gazania lanata and G. splendidissima: Two new species of Asteraceae (tribe Arctotideae) from the Greater Capensis, with an updated key for the genus. South African Journal of Botany 77(1):86-93.
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