Botterblom – Gerbera ambigua

 

The Gerbera genus was named after the German naturalist Traugott Gerber and is a tufted perennial daisy with a single flowerhead which consists of several rows of radial bracts. There are 13 species found in South Africa. Gerberas fall into the daisy family – Asteraceae and the species name “ambigua” is a common epithet from Latin meaning doubtful or uncertain which is applied to species that appear highly variable – as is the case with this species. Both the leaf structure and inflorescence colour may vary considerably.

The grassland on our south-western slop is dotted with these white daisies almost all year round with the biggest show of flowers between September to December. The creamy white ray florets have a pink/reddish colour on the reverse side.  These flowers occur in open woodland and savanna in rocky soil as well as along rivers, in damp grasslands and in disturbed soil alongside roads. They may be found from Humansdorp in the Eastern Cape, through Lesotho, KwaZulu-Natal, the Free State, Gauteng, Swaziland, Mpumalanga, Limpopo, North West and Mozambique.

The single flower stem grows up to 350mm tall from a rosette of leaves. The elliptical leaves may be thinly hairy or hairless and are white felted on the underside. Although the leaves are petiolate, the plant itself is stemless with thick fleshy roots.

The inflorescence is 20 – 35 mm in diameter, with white ray florets (pink/red on the reverse side). The daisy centre consisting of pappus hairs may range in colour from a deep purple to a pale creamy-yellow. The plants on HeatherTon all appear to have very dark centres.

A little whimsy – Fen Elfdancer

She is cheerful and friendly. She lives in reed marshes and lonely fenland. She can only be seen when the bees swarm and the crickets chirrup. She wears pale pink marshmallow flowers and has transparent green wings like a cicada.