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Mairia hirsuta | |
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Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Asterids |
Order: | Asterales |
Family: | Asteraceae |
Genus: | Mairia |
Species: | M. hirsuta |
Binomial name | |
Mairia hirsuta | |
Synonyms [1] | |
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Mairia hirsuta is a tufted perennial, herbaceous plant of up to 40 cm (1+1⁄3 ft) high, that is assigned to the family Asteraceae. Most of its narrow to broad elliptic or inverted egg-shaped leaves are part of the basal rosette, have margin that is rolled under, with rounded or pointy teeth or with some peg-like extensions, lightly woolly on the upper surface and densely woolly on the underside, but always the green remains visible. Flower heads have been found from July to November, mostly after a fire or when the soil has been disturbed. The species can be found in the southern mountains of the Western Cape province of South Africa. [2]
This species of fire daisy was first described by the famous Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus in 1771 as Cineraria purpurata, based on a herbarium specimen from Caput Bonae Spei [Cape of Good Hope], a term then used for the larger Cape Region, that was sent to him by the governor of the Dutch Cape Colony between 1751 and 1771, Ryk Tulbagh. The description was however too general to determine without doubt which plant species it concerned, and Augustin Pyramus de Candolle in 1836, listed it as an inadequately known species. De Candolle in 1836, also described Mairia hirsuta based on four collections from the Langeberg to the northwest of Swellendam at Puspasvalei, Voormansbosch, Duivelsbosch and the banks of the Keurbooms River made by Christian Friedrich Ecklon and Karl Ludwig Philipp Zeyher. In 1891, Otto Kuntze reassigned it, making the combination Zyrphelis hirsuta. The name Cineraria purpurata is disregarded from that time on, until Glynis Cron, Kevin Balkwill and Eric B. Knox identify a lectotype and subsequently exclude the species from Cineraria , in their revision of that genus in 2006. In 2011, Santiago Ortiz and Ulrike Zinnecker-Wiegand revised the genera Mairia, Gymnostephium and Zyrphelis , and reinstated M. hirsuta. John Manning synonymised M. hirsuta and Cineraria purpurata in 2016, proposing the new combination Mairia purpurata. [2] [3] This has however not yet gained wide acceptance. [1] [4] [5] The species is not synonymous with Gymnostephium hirsutum , described by Christian Friedrich Lessing in 1832. [6]
Mairia hirsuta is a tufted, robust, perennial, herbaceous plant of mostly 25–38 cm (10–15 in) high (full range 14–40 cm), that has one to three leaf rosettes at its base. Its dark brown roots are thick and fleshy and emerge from a woody and robust rhizome of up to 7 cm (3 in) long. Most of its leaves are part of the basal rosette, but some are set alternately on the lower parts of the approximately nine to eighteen inflorescence stalks. The leaves are seated or are sometimes a little or substantially narrowed into a leaf stalk of 3–25 mm (1⁄10–1 in) long. The leaf axils are sometimes densely woolly. The leaf blade varies in outline between narrowly or broadly inverted egg-shaped and narrowly elliptic to elliptic, mostly 4+1⁄3–10 cm (1+2⁄3–4 in) long (full range 3–12+1⁄2 cm) and 1+1⁄2–3+1⁄2 cm (0.6–1.4 in) wide (full range 3⁄4–5 cm). The leaves have a blunt to pointy tip and a margin that is rolled under, with rounded or pointy teeth or is sometimes almost entire with some peg-like extensions. The upper surface shows a distinct main vein, is hairless or has some dispersed woolly hairs. The lower surface of the leaves is leathery and hard, and sometimes succulent and then the netted veins may be nearly invisible. The lower leaf surface always remains visible through the dense or more open layer of woolly hairs, and appears whitish scaly with shiny, amber-coloured glands. [2]
From each rosette, up to three robust, purplish brown or darkish red, mostly ribbed, at least higher up densely woolly flower stalks arise of 8–38 cm (3–15 in) long, thicker directly below the only flower head at its tip. The stalk also carries several line-shaped bracts of up to 5 cm (2 in) long that decrease in size upwards, and has the same hair cover as the leaves, their margins with wavy teeth or mostly entire, set at an angle or pressed to the stalk. Rarely the flower stalk branches in the upper two-thirds. [2]
The between thirty two and forty six overlapping bracts, arranged in four whorls, that jointly surround the florets in the same head, form a broadly bell-shaped involucre that is 1+1⁄4–1+3⁄4 cm (1⁄2–1⁄3 in) high and 2–3+1⁄2 cm (3⁄4–1+1⁄3 in) in diameter. Those in the outermost whorl are purplish, densely woolly, line-shaped to very narrowly egg-shaped, oval or inverted egg-shaped, 7–8+1⁄2 mm (0.28–0.34 in) long and 1+1⁄2–2+3⁄4 mm (0.06–0.11 in) wide, with a pointy tip, with a fringe of equally long and regularly spaced hairs. In the inner whorl, bracts are line-shaped, 11–13 mm (0.43–0.51 in) long and 0.8–1.2 mm (0.031–0.047 in) mm wide, eventually hairless and straw-coloured at the base, and woolly and purplish towards the pointy tip, with a papery margin and long hairs along the edges. [2]
Each flower head has about thirty, female ray florets. The corolla is reddish purple, mauve, pink or white. The lower tube-shaped part is 5–7 mm (0.20–0.28 in) long has some glandular hairs. The flat upper part (or limb) is line-shaped, 2–3 cm (4⁄5–1+1⁄5 in) long and 3–5 mm (0.12–0.20 in) wide, with four veins, ending with three teeth. The style of each ray floret is up to 5.5 mm (0.22 in) long, the upper 1.2–1.5 mm (0.047–0.059 in) is split into two line- to ellipse-shaped branches. The ray florets do not contain staminodes. In the center of the head are many bisexual disc florets that are shorter than the longest pappus bristles, and these florets consist of a tube at their base of 5–6 mm (0.20–0.24 in) long, with some irregularly spread glandular hairs, and five upright or recurved triangular lobes of about 1 mm (0.039 in) long, and often have a resin duct along their margin, and sometimes set with 0.4–0.8 mm (0.016–0.031 in) long hairs and shiny glands with rounded tips. The five anthers, which are, as is usual in the entire family Asteraceae, fused in a tube, are about 1+1⁄2–2 mm (0.06–0.08 in) long, each with a triangular appendage of about 1⁄2 mm (0.02 in) at their tip. When the disc floret opens, the style grows to about 6 mm (0.24 in) long, hoovering up the pollen on its shaft. The upper 1–1+1⁄2 mm (0.04–0.06 in) of the style is split into two line- to ellipse-shaped branches with deltoid appendages at its tip of 0.35 mm (0.014 in) wide and 0.2 mm (0.0079 in) long. [2]
Surrounding the base of the corolla of both ray and disc florets are two whorls of white to straw-coloured pappus bristles. The outer whorl consist of free barbed bristles of 0.5–3.5 mm (0.020–0.138 in) long that alternate with the inner whorl. The pappus of the inner whorl consists of feathery bristles of 6.7–7.0 mm (0.26–0.28 in) long, either or not barbed and fused in a ring at their base. In both ray and disc florets, the brown, one-seeded, indehiscent, dry fruits (or cypselae) are cylinder- to spindle-shaped in outline, rarely inverted egg-shaped, 3.5–4.4 mm (0.14–0.17 in) long and 0.9–2.0 mm (0.035–0.079 in) wide. The cypselae have four to five, mostly dark brown, distinct ribs along their lengths. The cypselae are covered in shiny yellow glands. They also have a dense covering of deeply cleft, silky twin hairs of 0.4–0.5 mm (0.016–0.020 in) long, with branches that are almost equal in length, and no further adornment on the seed skin. [2]
The leaves of M. hirsuta are not as tidily arranged in rosettes as in the other species, and some leaves can even be found along the lower parts of the inflorescence stalks. M. hirsuta can also be distinguished from all other Mairia species by the combination of the regularly rounded or pointy teeth along the leaf margins, the long straps of the ray florets of 2–3 cm (0.79–1.18 in) long, and no staminodes in the ray florets. [2]
Mairia hirsuta can easily be confused with M. robusta that has similar leaves, and also has long ray florets that lack staminodes. However, the underside of the leaves of M. hirsuta is visible and greenish, despite densely to sparsely woolly hair (giving a whitish scaly appearance, with shiny, amber-coloured glands). The lower leaf surface in M. robusta on the other hand, consists of two layers of hairs, a bluish grey cobwebby layer through which longer woolly hairs extend, making it white in colour and the leaf surface isn't visible through the hairs at all. In addition, the involucral bracts in M. hirsuta are overlapping, with the outer bracts distinctly smaller than the inner ones, whereas in M. robusta all bracts are more or less the same size. [2]
Mairia hirsuta is a local endemic of the Langeberg between Swellendam, Suurbraak and the neighbouring Warmwaterberg. It is considered a rare species, because although it occupies a range of only about 59 km2 (23 sq mi), it is well protected in the Boosmansbos Wilderness Area and the Marloth Nature Reserve. Here it grows in a fynbos vegetation on the steep, south-facing slopes. [2] [4]
Felicia aethiopica is a low shrublet of up to about 50 cm high that is assigned to the family Asteraceae. It has rigid, leathery, inverted egg-shaped leaves, with only the lowest pair set oppositely. It has flower heads with an involucre of about 8 mm in diameter with bracts that each contain three resin ducts, and have one whorl of twelve to fourteen ray florets with about 11 mm long and 1½ mm wide blue straps surrounding many yellow disc florets. The plant is called wild aster or dwarf Felicia in English, and wilde-aster or bloublombossie in Afrikaans. Flowering occurs year-round. Wild aster can be found in the Western and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa.
Phaneroglossa is a genus of plants that is assigned to the daisy family. It consists of only one species, Phaneroglossa bolusii, a perennial plant of up to 40 cm high, that has leathery, line- to lance-shaped, seated leaves with mostly few shallow teeth and flower heads set individually on top of long stalks. The flower head has an involucre of just one whorl of bracts, few elliptic, white or cream ray florets, and many yellow disc florets. It is an endemic species of the Western Cape province of South Africa. Flowering mainly occurs from November to January.
Mairia is a genus of perennial herbaceous plants assigned to the family Asteraceae. All species have leathery, entire or toothed leaves in rosettes, directly from the underground rootstock, and one or few flower heads sit at the top of the stems that carry few bracts. These have a whorl of white to mauve ray florets surrounding yellow disc florets in the centre. In general, flowering only occurs after the vegetation has burned down. The six species currently assigned to Mairia are endemic to the Western Cape and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa. Some of the species are called fire daisy in English and vuuraster in Afrikaans.
Cavea is a low perennial herbaceous plant that is assigned to the family Asteraceae. Cavea tanguensis is currently the only species assigned to this genus. It has a basal rosette of entire, slightly leathery leaves, and stems of 5–25 cm high, topped by bowl-shaped flower heads with many slender florets with long pappus and purplish corollas. The vernacular name in Chinese is 葶菊. It grows high in the mountains of China (Sichuan), Tibet, India (Sikkim), and Bhutan, and flowers in July and August.
Leucospermum harpagonatum is an evergreen trailing shrublet with leathery, line-shaped, upright leaves and small heads with eight to ten cream, later carmine-colored, strongly incurved flowers assigned to the family Proteaceae. It is reminiscent of the hottentot fig without its flowers. It is called McGregor pincushion in English and flowers from late August till early November. It is critically endangered and occurs only in a very small area in the Western Cape province, South Africa.
Mairia crenata is a perennial herbaceous plant of mostly 2–15 cm (1–6 in) high that is assigned to the family Asteraceae. It has a woody rootstock of up to 5 cm (2 in) long, from which brown, fleshy roots develop. The five to eighteen, hard and leathery, spoon-shaped leaves are in one to three rosettes, have a distinct main vein, blunt or pointy tip, often dark red or blackish margins with rounded teeth and a ½–2 cm (0.2–0.8 in) long stalk-like foot, often initially somewhat woolly hairy, on particularly the lower surface and the main vein, but this is easily rubbed off the shiny surfaces. Each rosette produces mostly one, sometimes up to four, mostly rusty or whitish woolly hairy, brown or dark red inflorescence stalks, usually 1½–15 cm long, each with two to eight, initially woolly, line-shaped to oval bracts, the lowest up to 3 cm (1.2 in), decreasing size further up, and carrying mostly one, rarely up to three flower heads. The flower heads have a bell-shaped involucre with about 40 bracts, sixteen to thirty three violet to white ray florets of about 1¼–1⅞ cm long, and many yellow disc florets. The species flowers anywhere between February and December but only after a fire has destroyed the overhead biomass or serious disturbance. It is an endemic species that is restricted to the Eastern Cape and Western Cape provinces of South Africa.
Felicia cymbalariae, is a hairy perennial herbaceous plant of up to 30 cm (12 in) high in the family Asteraceae. It has creeping branches that bend upwards, stalked leaves of up to 6 × 4½ cm (2.4 × 1.8 in) with few teeth or nearly entire. The flower heads are set individually on top of up to 8 cm (3 in) long stalks and contain about sixteen white ray florets of about 6 × 1½ mm around a center with many yellow or dark wine red disc florets. It can be found in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Flower heads can be found between September and June.
Felicia macrorrhiza is a small, evergreen shrub in the family Asteraceae. This species grows in the Karoo region of South Africa. It is called Aspoestertjie in Afrikaans.
Felicia dregei is an evergreen, glandular shrub of up to 11⁄2 m (5 ft) high, that is assigned to the family Asteraceae. It has flat, finely felty, grayish green, narrowly elliptic to lance-shaped leaves of up to 4 cm long and 8 mm wide, with an entire margin or here and there with up to ten teeth. The flower heads have about ten violet ray florets, encircling many yellow disc florets. This species grows in the Northern Cape and Western Cape provinces of South Africa.
Felicia amoena is a variably hairy, sometimes glandular, biennial or perennial plant, of about 25 cm (10 in) high, that is assigned to the family Asteraceae. It is somewhat woody at its base, roots at the nodes if these contact the soil, and has ascending branches. The leaves are oppositely arranged along the stems at and just above a branching fork, further up the leaves alternate. The flower heads sit individually on up to 12 cm long stalks. They are 2–3 cm in diameter and consist of about twelve to twenty five heavenly blue ray florets that surround many yellow disc florets. Three subspecies have been recognised, that differ in width of the leaves and the involucral bracts, the size of the heads and number of ray florets and in having glandular hairs. These can be found in coastal sands and inland areas in the Western Cape and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa. Flower heads can be found from June till October.
Mairia coriacea is a perennial plant assigned to the family Asteraceae. It has broad, tough and leathery, evergreen leaves. These have a narrowed foot and an entire margin or a few shallow, irregular teeth. They grow in a rosette directly from the rootstock. The plant produces flower heads with one whorl of white to mauve ray florets around many yellow disc florets, with one or few on top of a dark reddish, woolly stalk. Flower heads appear after the overhead vegetation burnt down, often destroying the leaves in the process. It can be found in the southern mountains of South Africa's Western Cape province. It is called leather leaves in English.
Felicia bellidioides is a perennial plant of up to about 25 cm (10 in) high, that is assigned to the family Asteraceae. Most of the narrowly inverted egg-shaped leaves are silky hairy and in a basal rosette with no or few very narrow bracts on the stalk in the subspecies bellidioides. In the subspecies foliosa, the narrower leaves are not silky hairy but variously bristly and glandular, with more and larger bracts on the inflorescence stalk. The flowerheads sit individually on top of a long peduncle and consist of an involucre with only two worls of bracts, about twenty purplish blue ray florets, surrounding many yellow disc florets. It occurs in the Western Cape province of South Africa.
Felicia wrightii is a low, up to 20 cm (8 in) high, perennial, herbaceous plant with conspicuous basal leaf rosettes, and runners that end in rosettes. It has narrow bracts along the inflorescence stalks on top of which are individual flower heads with an involucre of three whorls of bracts, about sixteen ray florets with about 1 cm long, pale blue straps, that encircle many yellow disc florets. No fertile seeds have been found, so this species may solely reproduce vegetatively. The species is only known from one location in the KwaZulu-Natal Drakensberg, where it grows on damp stream banks.
Felicia bergeriana is a richly branching, hairy annual plant of up to 25 cm (10 in) high that is assigned to the family Asteraceae. It has opposite leaves and flower heads set individually on up to 8 cm long stalks, that consist of an involucre of about 1⁄2 cm diameter with two whorls of bracts, about twelve blue ray florets surrounding more yellow disc florets. It is sometimes called kingfisher daisy in English. It can be found in the Northern and Western Cape provinces of South Africa. It is sometimes cultivated as an ornamental.
Mairia burchellii is a tufted perennial plant of up to 15 cm (6 in) assigned to the family Asteraceae. It has narrow leaves of up to 5 mm (0.20 in) wide, with single main vein and an entire margin. Flower heads only occur after a fire has destroyed the standing vegetation, mostly in November or between February and June. The flower heads sit individually or with a few on the tip of a purplish stalk, with a few narrow bracts, and consist of a row of pinkish ray florets around many yellow disc florets. It can be found in the southwest of the Western Cape province of South Africa.
Mairia petiolata is a tufted, variably hairy, perennial plant of up to 15 cm (6 in) assigned to the family Asteraceae. Its leaves are in a ground rosette, and have a stalk of mostly 2–5 cm long and an inverted egg-shaped to elliptic, 61⁄2–9 cm (2.6–4.6 in) long and 2–3 cm wide leaf blade, with a toothed margin. It mostly has two flower heads at the tip of the branches of each erect, dark reddish brown scape. The flower heads have a bell- to cup-shaped involucre that consists of 20–24, purplish, overlapping bracts in 3–4 whorls. These protect 12–16 pink, ray florets, surrounding many yellow disc florets. This species was only seen flowering once, in December. It is known from one location in the Langeberg, Western Cape province of South Africa.
Mairia robusta is a tufted, white-woolly, perennial, herbaceous plant of up to 30 cm (1 ft) high, that is assigned to the family Asteraceae. It has large, robust, hard and leathery leaves, with a white woolly hairy, nontransparent underside, while the felty hairs on the top are lost with age. Only at a few occasions, flowers have been observed, in June, October and December, always after a fire. The flower heads sit individually at the tip of white-woolly scapes, with 14–16 purplish pink to white ray florets surrounding a yellow disc. M. robusta is an endemic species that is restricted to rocky mountain slopes in the Western Cape province of South Africa.
Felicia mossamedensis or yellow felicia is a well-branched, roughly hairy, annual or perennial plant of up to 30 cm (1 ft) high, assigned to the family Asteraceae. It has alternately arranged, seated, flat to slightly succulent, broad-based, entire, blunt tipped leaves. The flower heads sit individually on top of a stalk of up to 8 cm (3 in) long, have an involucre of three whorls of bracts, many yellow ray florets and many yellow disk florets. It can be found in southern Africa, in Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Botswana, Eswatini, South Africa and on the coast of Angola.
Felicia cana is a low and slender shrublet of up to 15 cm high, covered in white felty hairs, that is assigned to the family Asteraceae. It has alternately arranged leaves, and flower heads of about 16 mm (0.63 in) across, with 3–4 whorls of involucral bracts, and about 20 blue purple ray florets, surrounding many yellow disc florets in the centre. Very characteristic for the species are also the middle-long hairs with forked tips on the surface of its fruits. It is an endemic species that is restricted to a zone along the southern coast of the Western Cape province of South Africa.
Felicia tenella is an annual, sometimes biennial, herbaceous plant that may be slightly woody at its base, of 5–70 cm tall, that is assigned to the family Asteraceae. The species is very variable in size and hairiness. Its branches may be erect or ascending, and the leaves are narrowly line-shaped, 2–5 cm long and about 1 mm (0.04 in) wide. The leaves have a callous tip, lack visible nerves, and are mostly rigidly ciliate. The flower heads sit individually at the tip of stalks, have an involucre of three whorls of bracts, and about thirty light blue ray florets surrounding many yellow disc florets. Four subspecies are recognised. The species naturally occurs in the Northern Cape and Western Cape provinces of South Africa.