South Africa’s botanical riches are appreciated by wildflower enthusiasts all over the world. Many astute farmers earn a good income by offering tours and accommodation to these tourists.
As we progress through the alphabet in this series it would be a serious omission if we neglected to deal with the daisy family while on the letter D. Daisies are the flowers we’re most familiar with and they’re not only one of the most common groups, occurring in almost every habitat, environment and veld type, but they are always bright, cheerful, happy flowers, adding colour to many a drab landscape.
The best known displays of daisies are those we encounter in spring in Namaqualand where on sunny days thousands of hectares of brilliant flowers attract visitors from all over the world. However, in other regions and at other times of the year, they’re so common and widespread we tend to overlook them, not realising their rich diversity, with some very special individual species.
Daisies belong to the family Asteraceae, named after one of the best-known groupings within the family, asters. The Asteraceae include plants of many shapes and sizes – small trees, shrubs, succulents, creepers, perennials and annuals. It’s the largest plant family comprising some 25 000 species in all habitats worldwide. he flowers are usually small and often yellow or purple. The flower heads consist of a large number of small flowers called florets, surrounded by a ring of what we would describe as petals, but which are really modified florets, called ray-florets. The specialised fruits, when ripe, are crowned with a ring of flat scales or thread-like bristles that aid in the dispersal of seeds by wind.
A most comprehensive and easy-to-follow guide to the identification of members of the daisy family is included in the recently published Field Guide to Fynbos by John Manning and published by Struik. It’s illustrated with 1 100 photographs and would be an extremely valuable addition to your botanical library. he many genera of Asteraceae include thistles (Berkheya), Senecio and everlastings (Helichrysum). Other genera include species which have been developed as horticultural subjects such as Arctotis, Calendula, Cineraria, Dimorphotheca, Felicia, Gazania, Gerbera, Ursinia and so on.
We will briefly discuss some of these genera. histles (Berkheya) are characterised by thorny foliage and large, mostly yellow flowers. It’s a pity the thorny foliage detracts from their value as horticultural subjects since they are easy to propagate from seed and make a spectacular show. Berkheya speciosa and Berkheya macrocephala are two particularly impressive thistles that grace the higher mountain slopes of the eastern grassland.
Berkheya purpurea, with various shades of mauve to purple flowers, are found at high altitudes in the Eastern Cape, the Drakensberg and Lesotho. It’s the largest and undoubtedly the most beautiful of our thistles. Senecio are infamous because some are poisonous and cause extensive stock loss. Senecio bupleuroides and Senecio latifolius are the main culprits. They are the first plants to appear in spring, in some of the summer grassland regions, and if hungry livestock are put on burned veld too early after a fire, they eat the Senecio which cause acute liver damage and rapid death. Animals grazing Senecio-infested veld could also ingest small quantities over a period of time causing slow but chronic liver damage resulting in loss of condition, debilitation and ultimately death.
The solution is to rest burned grassland until there is adequate forage and until the Senecio plants have matured and lose their toxicity. Never put weaned lambs or animals from a Senecio-free environment that are not familiar with the plant, into Senecio-infested paddocks in spring, when the plants are at their most toxic. Luckily most Senecio are innocuous and some are highly decorative. The mauve-flowered Senecio elegans has become a popular garden subject and the well-known canary creeper (Senecio tamoides), which adorns the forests verges of the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal in late autumn, is a popular garden creeper. he everlastings (Helichrysum and related genera, each with many species) are ubiquitous plants occurring throughout the country in both grassland and fynbos.
The flower heads are solitary or often flat-topped clusters, having several rows of rigid, papery bracts in various colours, depending on the species. The latter feature results in the retention of both shape and colour of the flowers, even when dry and old – hence the common name, everlastings. Consequently they are very popular in dry arrangements around which a fairly large industry has developed. The dark pink-and-red everlasting Phaenocoma prolifera occurs extensively in the mountains of the Western Cape and is commercially cultivated near Napier, the village where I live. Helichrysum odoratissimum and several other related species are strongly aromatic, much-branched perennial herbs that have traditionally been used as bedding material (hence the Afrikaans name kooigoed, meaning bedding). Their aromatic qualities, known to be effective at repelling parasites and insects, ensure a good night’s rest. They’re also burned in traditional practice as ritual incense to invoke the goodwill of the ancestors.
The drab, grey-hued renoster bush (Elytropappus rhinocerotus) a dominant bush in the Renosterveld in the Western Cape, is also a member of the daisy family. A more familiar daisy, especially to gardeners, is the Namaqualand daisy (Dimorphotheca sinuata), that wonderful easy-care annual in shades of yellow and orange. They make such a show in spring gardens and we all avidly harvest seed for the next autumn sowing. Gazanias are another favourite garden and landscaping daisy, Gazania krebsiana being the most widespread throughout southern Africa. It’s a hardy, attractive perennial varying in colour from deep red and bronze to brilliant yellow. I was happy to find it even growing in my daughter’s Canadian garden when I visited her last July.
Probably our most famous daisy is the Barberton daisy (Gerbera jamesonii), a perennial daisy from the southern part of the Mpumalanga Lowveld. This red to dark orange daisy is a parent of the colourful hybrids grown in gardens, parks, pots and window boxes throughout the world. Alas, it’s sad to report that even among this ubiquitous group of plants there are species whose survival is threatened by human activity. The beautiful scarlet and rare Hilton daisy (Gerbera aurantiaca), has a limited distribution around the village of Hilton in the KZN Midlands. Urban sprawl, commercial pine plantations and agriculture have severely restricted its known distribution. – Cameron McMaster ([email protected])
