Gazania Gaertn.
Perennial herbs; stems trailing or erect; latex milky. Lvs in rosettes, or alternate on stems, pinnatifid, lobed, or entire. Capitula axillary, solitary, on long peduncles. Involucral bracts fused at base to form a cupule, in 2-3 series, similar in all rows. Receptacle flat, alveolate, ciliate; scales 0. Outer florets ligulate, sterile. Disc florets ⚥. Achenes obovoid to obconic or turbinate, without furrows. Pappus of 2 rows of linear-subulate toothed scales, the rows c. equal in length.
Key
16 spp., South Africa, Namibia, 1 in tropical Africa. Naturalised spp. 2.
Gazania has been subject to a lot of hybridisation and cultivar selection in N.Z. and possibly very little of the wild and cultivated material represents pure spp. Two entities are treated here; in addition at least 2 wild collections (CHR 408804, Nelson, Porter, 19.12.1977; CHR 222635, Taranaki Coast, Druce, Mar. 1972) are probably hybrids between them.
