Felicia amelloides

Felicia amelloides, the blue marguerite, is one of the sought after options for getting some blue into the garden. It grows easily and fast, it flowers well and lives long. The name reflects the plant’s similarity to the Michaelmas daisy, a large assortment of exotic daisies associated with the name amellus. The natural habitat is mainly coastal in the Western and Eastern Cape.

The soft perennial evergreen shrublet is usually spreading with much branching. It grows to around 50 cm tall, occasionally double that. The leaves are dark green, opposite and elliptic.

The flowers are single on long stalks. They measure 3 cm across. The main attraction, the about 12 blue ray florets are individual female flowers. The many yellow disc florets are bisexual. Colour variations include lighter and darker blue, purple and white, but whether all of those occur in nature or just in horticultural cultivars, is unsure.

The fruit, an achene, is attached to a tuft of bristly hairs, a pappus (www.plantzafrica.com).