Arctotis acaulis

Arctotis acaulis, in Afrikaans commonly the renostergousblom (rhinoceros marigold), is a stemless perennial reaching 20 cm to 30 cm in height.

The plant grows leaves and flowers from its tuberous rootstock. Acaulis means stemless, the feature implying that with no stem there are no branches. The picture shows that the leaf tuft may become large and many-leaved. The plant may also be many-flowered.

The species distribution of A. acaulis is in the Western Cape from the Cape Peninsula northwards to southern Namaqualand and Calvinia in the Northern Cape and eastwards to Swellendam. The photo was taken at Kagga Kamma.

The habitat is clay, gravel or sandy flats and slopes in biomes such as fynbos, renosterveld, succulent Karoo and Nama Karoo. The species is not considered to be threatened in its habitat early in the twenty first century (Manning and Goldblatt, 1997; Bond and Goldblatt, 1984; http://pza.sanbi.org; www.redlist.sanbi.org).