For quite a considerable time this common and well-known Dimorphotheca was placed in herbaria under the name of Dimorphotheca Ecklonis, and Harvey, who examined specimens of this plant collected by Burke and Zeyher on the Aapies River and Magaliesberg, also included it under D. Ecklonis. Dr. Schlechter first recognised that the Transvaal plant was an undescribed species, but apparently did not realise that Burke and Zeyher had collected the plant close on a hundred years ago, as he founded his description on specimens collected by Mr. E. E. Galpin, F.L.S., in 1887, on the Saddleback Mountains, Barberton.
Dimorphotheca spectabilis is a spring flowering plant, and is common around Pretoria during the months of September and October. It is a well-grown plant with large mauve flowers, and if introduced into cultivation would be an acquisition to any garden. The plant sets seed freely, and could easily be raised by this means. The species is poisonous, and in experiments carried out by the Division of Veterinary Research, the plant was found to cause death in sheep fed on it.
Specimens are preserved in the National Herbarium, Pretoria (Herb. No. 1470).
Description:—An herbaceous plant 24-40 cm. high with one or more stems arising from the apex of a stout deep underground root. Stem terete, faintly furrowed, covered with short glandular hairs. Leaves 2-4 cm. long, ·6-1 cm. broad, lanceolate or lanceolate-ovate, obtuse, tapering upwards from a broad base, sometimes slightly narrowed at the base, with a prominent midrib and two faint lateral nerves more distinct on the upper surface, punctate-glandular on both surfaces, and with glandular hairs beneath, ciliate with glandular hairs. Flower head solitary at the ends of the stems. Peduncle 6-10 cm. long, terete, furrowed, glandular-pubescent. Involucral-scales in 2 rows, somewhat connate at the base, 1·3-2 cm. long, ovate, acuminate, acute with membranous margins, glandular-pubescent. Receptacle 7 mm. broad, convex, hollow. Ray florets female. Corolla-tube 2 mm. long, cylindric, glandular-pilose; limb 2 cm. long, 4 mm. broad, linear, 3-toothed at the apex, glandular-pilose on the back at the base. Style as long as the corolla-tube. Disc florets hermaphrodite. Corolla-tube 5 mm. long, cylindric, constricted and narrower near the base, sparsely covered with glandular hairs on the broader portion of the tube; lobes 2 mm. long, almost 1 mm. broad, lanceolate, obtuse. Filaments 4 mm. long, linear; anthers 3·5 mm. long, with deep golden-yellow pollen. Pappus none. Ovary 3 mm. long, flattened, winged and 2-horned at the apex; style 6 mm. long, cylindric; lobes 1 mm. long, truncate at the apex. Fruit 1·5 cm. long, flattened, orbicular, with a circular wing.
Plate 57.—Fig. 1, whole plant showing habit (reduced); Fig. 2, flower bud; Fig. 3, disk flower; Fig. 4, ray flower with ovary removed.
F.P.S.A., 1922.