S.W. Africa.
Compositae. Tribe Arctotideae.
Venidium, Less.; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant. vol. ii. p. 459.
Venidium macrocephalum, DC. Prodr. vol. vi. p. 494; Fl. Cap. vol.
iii. p. 463; Bot. Mag. t. 8845.
Our illustration was made from plants raised at the Division of Botany, Pretoria, from seed collected by Dr. J. M. Troup at Aus in South-west Africa. The plant flowers freely and makes a splendid display, and as a garden plant for supplying cut flowers it is well worth cultivation.
Seed was sent by the Chief of the Division of Botany to Kew in 1918, and the plants raised were figured in the Botanical Magazine (t. 8845). Mr. J. Hutchinson, who drew up the description for the Botanical Magazine, gives as his reason for retaining this genus separate from Arctotis (see Plate 3) that the latter has a well-developed double pappus, whereas in Venidium the pappus is either absent or very rudimentary.
The species of Venidium, in common with many species of Gazania, Arctotis and Dimorphotheca, are collectively known as “Gous Bloom.”
Description:—A herbaceous sticky plant with radicle leaves. Leaves 16 to 19 cm. long lyrate; the uppermost lobe 7 to 8 cm. long, 2·5 to 5 cm. broad, the margins lobed with broad oblong lobes, with three main veins, distinct above and prominent beneath, cobwebby on both surfaces; lower lobes 1 to 2·5 cm. long; ·7 to 1·3 broad, oblong, obtuse, cobwebby above and beneath; petiole flat above, convex beneath, with three distinct keels, scantily cobwebby; cauline leaves 2 to 9 cm. long, pinnatilobed, eared and somewhat clasping at the base. Stems up to 33 cm. long, terete, ribbed, covered with long glandular hairs. Heads solitary at ends of stems, 8 to 9 cm. in diameter when fully expanded. Involucral bracts in 4 rows; outermost 8 mm. long, acuminate from a broad base, green, covered with long glandular hairs; innermost 1·2 cm. long, glabrous, membranous. Receptacle 1·5 cm. in diameter, honeycombed, the margins of the cells membranous and produced into long awns. Ray-floret female, lemon-chrome, orange at base. Tube 3 mm. long, cylindric; lobe 3·5 cm. long, 7 mm. broad, lanceolate, minutely 3-toothed at the apex, 2-keeled beneath; at throat of tube are four minute black structures representing reduced corolla lobes. Pappus less than ·5 mm. membranous. Ovary 1 mm. long; style 4 mm. long, terete, thickened below the lobes; lobes 1 mm. long, oblong, obtuse. Disc-florets hermaphrodite. Corolla-tube 3 mm. long, 1·25 mm. in diameter above, slightly narrower at the base, sparsely glandular; lobes 1·5 mm. long, linear, obtuse. Anthers black, 2·25 mm. long, blunt at base. Ovary and pappus similar to those of ray-florets; style thin for the first 3 mm., then suddenly much thickened in the upper 2 mm. of its length; lobes ·5 mm. long, oblong, obtuse. (National Herb. Pretoria, No. 2599.)
[Plate 117.]—Fig. 1, basal leaf reduced; 2, outer involucral bract; 3, inner involucral bract; 4, longitudinal section through receptacle; 5, surface view of part of receptacle; 6, ray-floret; 7, stigmas and portion of style of ray-floret; 8, disc-floret; 9, stigmas and portion of style of disc-floret; 10, fruit.