Gerbera ambigua

Last updated

Gerbera ambigua
Gerbera ambigua.jpg
Gerbera ambigua from Vernon Crookes Nature Reserve, KwaZulu-Natal.
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Asterales
Family: Asteraceae
Genus: Gerbera
Species:
G. ambigua
Binomial name
Gerbera ambigua
Sch.Bip. (1844)
Synonyms
  • Lasiopus ambiguus Cass. (1822)
  • Lasiopus coriaceus DC. (1838)
  • Gerbera kraussii Sch.Bip. (1844)
  • Gerbera coriacea Sch.Bip. (1844)
  • Gerbera nervosa Sond. (1850)
  • Gerbera discolor Sond. ex Harv. (1865)
  • Gerbera elegans Muschl. (1911)
  • Gerbera lynchii Dümmer (1914)
  • Gerbera flava R.E.Fr. (1916)
  • Gerbera welwitschii S.Moore (1916)
  • Gerbera randii S.Moore (1926)

Gerbera ambigua is a species of flowering plant in the section Lasiopus [1] of genus Gerbera belonging to the basal Mutisieae tribe within the large Asteraceae (or Compositae) family. [2]

Contents

It is indigenous to Southern Africa and commonly known as the Botterblom or Griekwateebossie in Afrikaans. It was first described by Carl Heinrich "Bipontinus" Schultz in Flora Journal in 1844. [3]

Gerbera ambigua, yellow form Gerbera ambigua 1DS-II 3-0781.jpg
Gerbera ambigua, yellow form

Etymology

The genus was named in honour of German botanist and medical doctor Traugott Gerber (1710 — 1743). [4] The Latin epithet ambigua means "doubtful".

Description

Ray florets are commonly white above and pink beneath Gerbera ambigua 3.jpg
Ray florets are commonly white above and pink beneath

Gerbera ambigua is an acaulescent tufted perennial herb with thickened woody rootstock and naked flowering scapes up to 35 cm high. Leaves are very variable, usually petiolate, elliptical or oblanceolate, 5–8 cm long and 2.5–3.5 cm wide, thinly hairy above and white- or yellow-felted beneath. Flower-heads (capitula) are 2–5 cm in diameter, ray florets are white to yellow abobe and pink to coppery reddish on reverse. It flowers from September to February. [5] [6] [7]

Distribution

Gerbera ambigua grows in grassland and savanna of eastern South Africa, Lesotho, Eswatini and in tropical Southern Africa: Zaire, Angola, Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Malawi. [2]

Habitat

The species grows from 1500 m to 2600 m above sea level on rocky slopes in woodland. It is able to survive both dry, cold winters and annual fires which are typical of the region in which it is found.

Ecology

The species is pollinated by many different flying insects including beetles which feed on the pollen.

Related Research Articles

<i>Aerangis</i> Genus of orchids

Aerangis, abbreviated as Aergs in horticultural trade, is a genus of the Orchid family (Orchidaceae). The name of this genus has been derived from the Greek words 'aer' (air) and 'angos' (urn), referring to the form of the lip. It is the type genus of the subtribe Aerangidinae, which has recently been subsumed in the subtribe Angraecinae. Approximately 50 species in this genus are known mostly from tropical Africa, but also from the Comoro Islands, Madagascar and Sri Lanka.

<i>Picris</i> Genus of flowering plants

Picris (oxtongues) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae described as a genus by Linnaeus in 1753.

<i>Kniphofia</i> Genus of perennial flowering plants in the family Asphodelaceae

Kniphofia is a genus of perennial flowering plants in the family Asphodelaceae, first described as a genus in 1794. Species are native to Africa. Common names include tritoma, red hot poker, torch lily and poker plant.

<i>Gerbera</i> Genus of plants

Gerbera L. is a genus of plants in the Asteraceae (Compositae) family. The first scientific description of a Gerbera was made by J. D. Hooker in Curtis's Botanical Magazine in 1889 when he described Gerbera jamesonii, a South African species also known as Transvaal daisy or Barberton daisy. Gerbera is also commonly known as the African daisy.

<i>Gerbera jamesonii</i> Species of flowering plant

Gerbera jamesonii is a species of flowering plant in the genus Gerbera belonging to the basal Mutisieae tribe within the large Asteraceae family. It is indigenous to South Eastern Africa and commonly known as the Barberton daisy, the Transvaal daisy, and as Barbertonse madeliefie or Rooigousblom in Afrikaans. It was the first species of Gerbera to be the subject of a scientific description, studied by J. D. Hooker in Curtis's Botanical Magazine in 1889.

Cephalocroton is a genus of plant of the family Euphorbiaceae first described as a genus in 1841. It is native to central, eastern, and southern Africa from Nigeria and Ethiopia south to KwaZulu-Natal.

<i>Cosmos sulphureus</i> Species of flowering plant in the daisy family Asteraceae

Cosmos sulphureus is a species of flowering plant in the sunflower family Asteraceae, also known as sulfur cosmos and yellow cosmos. It is native to Mexico, Central America, and northern South America, and naturalized in other parts of North and South America as well as in Europe, Asia, and Australia.

<i>Brachylaena</i> Genus of flowering plants

Brachylaena is a genus of flowering plants in the aster, or composite, family, Asteraceae or Compositae. Several are endemic to Madagascar, and the others are distributed in mainland Africa, especially the southern regions.

<i>Lycoseris</i> Genus of flowering plants

Lycoseris is a genus of Central and South American flowering plants in the family Asteraceae.

<i>Hieracium horridum</i> Species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae

Hieracium horridum, known as the prickly hawkweed or shaggy hawkweed, is a species of plant in the family Asteraceae. It gets its name from the long, dense, shaggy white to brown hairs (trichomes) which cover all of the plant parts of this plant species. The species is native to Oregon, California, and Nevada in the western United States.

<i>Hecastocleis</i> Genus of flowering plants

Hecastocleis is a genus of low thorny shrubs with stiff branches, assigned to the daisy family. At the tip of each of the branches, inflorescences are subtended by oval, thorny, whitish to greenish bracts that enclose several flower heads which each contain only one pinkish bud, opening into a white corolla. It contains but one species, Hecastocleis shockleyi, the only representative of the tribe Hecastocleideae, and of the subfamily Hecastocleidoideae. Its vernacular name is prickleleaf. It is confined to the southwestern United States.

Perdicium is a genus of African plants in the tribe Mutisieae within the family Asteraceae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gustav Heynhold</span> German botanist

Gustav Heynhold was a German botanist who worked at the botanic gardens of Dresden and Frankfurt.

<i>Jasminum multipartitum</i> Species of vine

Jasminum multipartitum, the starry wild jasmine, African jasmine, or imfohlafohlane, is a species of jasmine, in the family Oleaceae, that is native to Southern Africa.

<i>Vanilla phaeantha</i> Species of orchid

Vanilla phaeantha, common name leafy vanilla or oblong-leaved vanilla, is a plant species known to occur in the wild only on the islands of Trinidad and Cuba, and also in Collier County, Florida. It occurs in cypress swamps and hammocks at elevations of less than 20 m.

Chaptalia albicans, the white sunbonnet, is a plant species native to Mexico, Central America and the West Indies. It is known from Jamaica, Cuba, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, southern Florida, the Bahamas, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, San Luis Potosí, Veracruz, Yucatán, Campeche and Chiapas.

<i>Askidiosperma</i> Genus of flowering plants

Askidiosperma is a group of plants in the Restionaceae described as a genus in 1850. The entire genus is endemic to Cape Province in South Africa.

<i>Pimelea sulphurea</i> Species of flowering plant

Pimelea sulphurea, commonly known as yellow banjine, is a species of flowering plant in the family Thymelaeaceae and is endemic to the south-west of Western Australia. It is an erect, spindly or open shrub with narrowly elliptic to more or less round leaves, and compact heads of pendulous, yellow flowers surrounded by 3 or more pairs of green to yellowish involucral bracts.

<i>Hedbergia</i> Genus of flowering plants in the broomrape family

Hedbergia is a monotypic genus of flowering plants, initially classified in Scrophulariaceae, and now within the broomrape family Orobanchaceae. It contains a unique species, Hedbergia abyssinica. It is an afromontane genus, widespread in grasslands and scrubs of the mountains of tropical Africa, and known from Ethiopia, Zaire, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Nigeria, and Cameroons.

<i>Tetramyxa</i> Genus of parasitic cercozoan

Tetramyxa is a cercozoan protist, member of the plasmodiophores, parasite of several flowering plants. It was first described by Karl von Goebel in 1884, in his work Flora. The genus is characterized by the appearance of resting spores in groups of four.

References

  1. Hansen, Hans V. (1988). "A taxonomic revision of the genera Gerbera sect. Isanthus, Leibnitzia (in Asia), and Uechtritzia (Compositae, Mutisieae)". Nordic Journal of Botany. 8 (1): 61–76. doi:10.1111/j.1756-1051.1988.tb01707.x. ISSN   1756-1051.
  2. 1 2 "Gerbera ambigua Sch.Bip". Plants of the World Online. Royal Botanic Gardens Kew . Retrieved 5 February 2022.
  3. "Flora oder Allgemeine Botanische Zeitung: welche Recensionen, Abhandlungen, Aufsätze, Neuigkeiten und Nachrichten, die Botanik betreffend, enthält". Flora. Flora, oder, Allgemeine botanische Zeitung. Regensburg: Die Gesellschaft. 27: 780. 7 January 1844.
  4. "Traugott Gerber". Gerbera.org.
  5. Pooley, Elsa (2003). Mountain flowers : a field guide to the flora of the Drakensberg and Lesotho (1st ed.). Durban [South Africa]: Flora Publications Trust, c/o Natal Herbarium. p. 114. ISBN   0620302224.
  6. Manning, John (March 29, 2019). Field guide to wild flowers of South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland. Cape Town: Struik Nature. p. 406. ISBN   9781770077584.
  7. Pope, G. V. (1992). "Compositae". Flora Zambesiaca. 6 (1). Retrieved 5 February 2022.