Africa Wild

Thorny Salad Bush Didelta spinosa (Perdebos, Slaaibos)
Order: Asterales. Family: Asteraceae. Subfamiliy: Cichorioideae. Tribe: Arctotideae. Subtribe: Gorteriinae




Augrabies 8.10.2012

Description
Didelta spinosa is a perennial shrub to 2 m with solitary yellow daisy flowerheads. It is cobwebby on the young parts, with somewhat fleshy, opposite, oval to elliptical shiny green leaves, lobed at the base, with the margins slightly rolled under and sometimes prickly. Tiny white spines are found at the leaf tips. The spines are not always present. Flowering happens from midwinter to early spring. It bears solitary, large, radiate, yellow flowerheads at the branch tips. A single array of narrowly elliptic ray florets surrounds the yellow disc. On each ray floret two longitudinal grooves can be seen, as well as notched tips on some of them.

Distribution
The plant is distributed along a strip on the west coast from Saldanha to the Gariep and into Namibia.

Habitat
Succulent Karoo. It grows on dry, rocky slopes (sandstone and granite).

Links: John Manning: Field Guide to Fynbos

Hare-Bell, Lesser Bellflower Wahlenbergia androsacea
Order: Asterales. Family: Campanulaceae

© Tina

© Tina
Tankwa Karoo National Park

Description
Erect tufted annual herb, up to 55 cm, with a basal rosette of roughly hairy, paddle-shaped leaves; margin dentate to pinnately lobed. Flat-topped panicles of white to pale blue, cup-shaped flowers, 5-15 mm in diameter, with a hairless ovary. Corolla deeply 5–lobed.

Habitat
A species of river banks and damp sandy grassland, usually near water.

Distribution
Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and South Africa (Eastern Cape, Northern Cape).

Common Geigeria Geigeria ornativa, Geigeria africana ornativa (Vermeerbos)
Order: Asterales. Family: Asteraceae

© GavinW
Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park

Description
Low-growing, perennial half-woody shrublet with a woody rootstock and long, narrow leaves in a circular arrangement at the base of the plant and yellow flower-heads. Sometimes stemless but usually with an ascending stem up to 30 cm long. Stems branched, rounded below, angular, flattened and ribbed above. Leaves alternate and strap-shaped with smooth to minutely toothed margins, leaf bases clasping the stem. Leaves along the stems and some in a basal rosette, sessile and clasping at the base, narrowly oblanceolate, up to c. 10 cm long, scaberulous or almost hairless and pitted with glands on both surfaces. Capitula solitairy in axils of leaves or branches or crowded in stemless specimens, bright yellow, c. 1 cm in diameter; involucre bracts c. 3-seriate. Ray-florets up to 1 cm long, 3-dentate at the apex.
Geigeria ornativa causes a stock poisoning called 'vermeersiekte' causing huge losses in goat, cattle and sheep herds. This disease causes vomiting then paralysis leading to death of the infected animal. Levels of toxicity vary according to the habitat, rainfall patterns and plant growth levels. Vermeersiekte is caused by overgrazing and an emphasis on maintaining healthy veld conditions, with reasonable grass cover combined with sensible grazing levels, appear to cure the disease.

Distribution
Angola, Botswana Namibia, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa (Eastern Cape, Free State, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape, North West, Western Cape)

Habitat
In pans, dambos, mopane woodland or grassland, usually on sandy soils or gravel plains.

Blue Bush, Wild Lavender Pteronia incana (Asbos, Bitterbos)
Order Asterales. Family: Asteraceae

© Michael de Nysschen
Klein Karoo near Oudtshoorn

Description
Grey green, small-leaved highly branched shrub 30-100 cm high. Leaves grey, 10 x 2 mm, felty. Flowers yellow, spring (August to October).

Distribution
Widespread in the Klein Karoo, Great Karoo, northwest up to Namaqualand and eastwards to the Eastern Cape.

Habitat
Heuweltjies and drainage lines in succulent karoo and renosterveld.

Lesser Purple Ragwort Senecio arenarius (Hongerblom)
Order: Asterales. Family: Asteraceae

© Tina
Dolphin Beach, Cape Town

Description
Annual herb, small (15-40 cm), loosely branched with a lightly hairy stem. It is covered with gland-tipped hairs (rarely almost hairless), with sessile, toothed or lobed leaves, the margins sometimes rolled under. It has yellow-centered pinkish flowers (with magenta ray-florets and yellow disc-florets), each about 3 cm across.

Distribution
Widespread in western parts of southern Africa, from central Namibia southwards to the Agulhas Plain, Western Cape.

Habitat
Fynbos, Succulent Karoo. On sandy flats.

Didelta Daisy Didelta carnosa tomentosa
Order Asterales. Family: Asteraceae

© Tina

© Tina

© Tina
West Coast National Park

Description
A shrublet with fleshy branches and yellow flowers. Leaves narrowly elliptic, fleshy with margins rolled under, grey and covered cobwebby. Flower heads solitary with five broad outer bracts. The inner row of bracts is narrowly lanceolate and toothed, tapering to acute tips. Flowering occurs from midwinter to early summer.

Distribution
Namibia and South Africa (Northern Cape, Western Cape).

Habitat
Strandveld. Found on coastal dunes and sandy flats.

Cape Snow Bush, Wild Rosemary Eriocephalus africanus (Kapokbossie)
Order: Asterales. Family: Asteraceae. Tribe: Anthemideae

© Tina
West Coast National Park

The genus Eriocephalus commonly known as ‘wild rosemary’, ‘Cape snow bush’, or ‘kapokbos’ is a member of the family Asteraceae (tribe Anthemideae). The genus is endemic to southern Africa, with the highest concentration of species in the Western and Northern Cape. The genus comprises 32 species and a total of 42 taxa, which are distributed in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, and Lesotho.
Members of the genus Eriocephalus are woody, evergreen and often aromatic shrubs. The leaves are simple, quite small and covered with pitted glands. The flowerheads may or may not have outer ray florets, which if present are usually white or in some species pink. After flowering, long white hairs develop in the heads so that they have the appearance of fluffy white cotton balls.

Description
A twiggy shrub to 1-2 m with tufts of narrow, sometimes forked, silvery-silky grey thin leaves; bears small, flat-topped clusters of conspicuously radiate flowerheads at the branch tips, with blunt, white rays.
The minute, silvery hairs covering the leaves trap moisture and thus reduce transpiration. The small, needle-shaped leaves are another adaptation that limits water loss. Along this wide distribution Eriocephalus africanus is very variable, especially when comparing plants growing in the salty air along the coast with those growing under much drier conditions inland. Shrubs growing on the coast have succulent leaves, whereas those growing away from the coast have thinner, less succulent leaves.
Flowering times vary, but the best displays are in winter when the whole shrub is covered in small, white flowers. Typical of the family Asteraceae, the flowers are a composition of 2-3 showy white ray florets on the outside and purple disc florets in the centre. Soon after flowering, fruits are formed that are covered in long, white hairs. These attractive, fluffy seed heads look like cotton wool or snow, which gave Eriocephalus the common name kapokbos in Afrikaans.

Distribution
Eriocephalus africanus is found throughout the Western Cape, Eastern Cape and southern Namaqualand.

Habitat
Eriocephalus africanus is found mostly on clay and granite hillsides.

Links: Elizabeth Wanjiku Njenga: THE CHEMOTAXONOMY, PHYLOGENY AND BIOLOGICAL ACTIVITY OF THE GENUS ERIOCEPHALUS L. (ASTERACEAE)

Pteronia Bush Pteronia divaricata (Geelgombos, Spalkpenbos)
Order Asterales. Family: Asteraceae

© Tina
West Coast National Park

Description
Rounded, leafy shrub to 2 m with broadly oval, rough-textured leaves; bears dense clusters of cylindrical discoid, yellow flowerheads, 15 mm long, the involucral bracts are oval or lance-shaped and hairless.

Distribution
From southern Namibia to the southwestern Cape.

Habitat
Sandy and stony slopes, flats.

Cape Strawflower, Cape Everlasting Phaenocoma prolifera (Rooi Sewejaartjie)
Order Asterales. Family: Asteraceae

© nan
Kirstenbosch

Description
A stiffly branched, erect, single-stemmed, rigid shrublet up to 600 mm high. Branches are densely leafy and also have numerous short leafy stalks at right angles to the main branches. Main branches decrease in length from the base upwards. The minute knob-like leaves occur in small clusters on short side branches, giving the plant its characteristic granular appearance. It bears solitary, large, disciform flowerheads 30-40 mm in diameter, borne terminal on branches. The flowerheads are a bright pink-red and contain 800 - 1000 individual flowers with very showy bright pink bracts. Involucral bracts occur in many rows with the innermost row forming the pink papery everlasting "petals". The bracts fade to almost white and become worn with age. Pappus is present and up to 150 pappus bristles per flower have been counted. Flowers are borne from September to January.

Distribution
Phaenocoma prolifera is native to the Cape Floristic Region of South Africa and occurs throughout the Western Cape.

Habitat
On mountain slopes and in valleys, mostly on sandy soil and at altitudes ranging from sea level to 1 500 m.

True-blue Daisy Felicia heterophylla (Ware-madeliefie)
Order: Asterales. Family: Asteraceae

© Tina
Kirstenbosch

Description
Felicia heterophylla is one of the few Felicia's with entirely blue flowers. A mat-forming annual, roughly hairy, with erect branches, up to 20 cm tall. The oblanceolate leaves are arranged alternately on the stem, 10-50 mm long, hairy, sometimes with 3 main nerves in the broader leaves. The margins are smooth or rarely obscurely toothed. The blue flowerheads consisting of blue ray and disc florets, are borne singly on long peduncles during spring (August to October). The 'seeds' (cypselas) are small, 4.5 x 2 mm, elliptic or obovate, yellowish brown and hairy. They are topped with a tuft of white hairs (pappus hairs) which helps with wind dispersal.

Habitat
Felicia heterophylla is usually found on sandy flats and slopes.

Distribution
Felicia heterophylla is a Western Cape endemic, it grows wild along the Cape coast from Namaqualand to Riversdale.