Compositae. Tribe Arctotideae.
Gazania, Gaertn.; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant. vol. ii. p. 459.
Gazania Pavonia, R. Br. in Ait. Hort. Kew. 2, vol. v. p. 140; Fl. Cap. vol. iii. p. 476.
This extremely handsome species of Gazania was cultivated by Mr. C. N. Knox-Davies in Johannesburg from plants collected at Worcester in the Cape Province. The plants form a dense mass, and are suitable either for growing in a border or in large pots. The ray florets are a beautiful nopal red, with a warm sepia-brown eye-spot at the base, and when the plants are in full bloom they present a very striking appearance. It is surprising that species of this genus, which are amongst the most handsome of the South African Compositae, have received so little attention from horticulturists, and though hundreds of our native plants have been figured in the Botanical Magazine only two species of Gazania have been illustrated.
Mr. N. E. Brown, who contributed an account of the genus to The Garden, wrote that “it is one of the most perplexing that a botanist has to deal with,” and even to-day the species are very imperfectly known. Our plant was submitted to Kew for verification of the name, and the Director reports, “The Gazania has not been exactly matched, but might be regarded as a form of G. Pavonia, R. Br.”
Specimens are preserved in the National Herbarium, Pretoria (Herb. No. 1473).
Description:—Plant compact, decumbent, forming a clump about 30 cm. in diameter. Leaves crowded near the apex of short shoots, 6-10 cm. long, pinnatisect, slightly broadened and clasping at the base; lobes 1-2·5 cm. long, 2·5-4 mm. broad, linear, subacute, woolly-tomentose beneath except on the mid-rib, sparsely woolly above, at length becoming glabrous. Peduncle 9 mm. long, terete, sparsely woolly, at length becoming glabrous. Tube of involucre 9 mm. long, 8 mm. in diameter, sparsely woolly, intruse at the base; lobes in three rows; the outer 4 mm. long, less than 1 mm. broad, linear, subacute; the innermost ovate, subacuminate, subobtuse, with reddish-brown margins. Ray-florets neuter, corolla tube 7 mm. long, cylindric; limb red with a dark-coloured mark at the base, 1·9 cm. long, 8 mm. broad, obovate, rounded and minutely 3-fid at the apex, with two prominent veins beneath. Disc-florets hermaphrodite. Corolla-tube 7 mm. long, more or less angled, glabrous; lobes ·5 mm. long, ovate, subacute. Anthers 3 mm. long. Pappus of long delicate linear scales connate in the lower half and encasing the base of the corolla tube, free in the upper half. Ovary densely clothed with long silky hairs; style elongating up to 1·3 cm. long, filiform; stigmas about 0·75 mm. long.