Arctotheca

Arctotheca is a genus of creeping, decumbent or tufted perennials.

The leaves, sometimes forming stem-tip rosettes, are alternate with petioles present. The lyre-shaped blades are sometimes pinnatifid, i.e. pinnately divided but only part of the way to the central axis. The blades and often the stems are whitish woolly or felted on the lower and sometimes both surfaces, particularly when young.

The flowerheads grow solitary on hollow peduncles. The involucres are bell-shaped, each comprising several rows of overlapping bracts ending in broad membranous margins and tips. The flat receptacles have honeycombed surfaces but no scales.

The yellow heads each bears a row of strap-shaped, neuter ray florets around numerous bisexual disc florets that are five-lobed at the top of funnel-shaped tubes. The similar genus of Arctotis has fertile rays.

Arctotheca ovaries are oblong to obovoid, their styles cylindrical and thickening towards the top. The anthers are linear, arrow-shaped at the base.

The fruits are thinly ribbed and sometimes hairy. The pappus consists of scales, sometimes membranous, otherwise glassy and translucent with hairy margins.

There are about five species of Arctotheca, all occurring in southern Africa.

The plant in picture is Arctotheca populifolia (Leistner, (Ed.), 2000; Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Manning, 2007).