Macledium zeyheri in winter

Macledium zeyheri blooms in summer. The flowers are good in dry flower displays that may last long. This photo was taken in winter in the Walter Sisulu National Botanical Garden. The dolls protea, as it is known in the vernacular, is not a Protea, although the involucral bracts around the daisy-like flowerhead create that impression.

Clarification of the genus Dicoma and a related genus Macledium is provided in a 2008 publication by Noluthando Netnou of the University of Johannesburg. Infraspecific variation groups are described, dealing with evolutionary changes still in process.

This leaves Dicoma with about 35 species of which 16 occur in southern Africa (http://hdl.handle.net/10210/243 ).

(See also the Plant Record on this plant elsewhere on this Site.)