Ursinia nana subsp. nana

Ursinia nana subsp. nana is a spreading annual reaching heights from 5 cm to 40 cm.

The dissected leaves have long, narrow lobes, spaced and ascending from the midsection with sunken central veins. The blades may be somewhat succulent.

The pale yellow flowerheads have single rows of round-tipped ray florets around yellow discs of small, bisexual florets. The flowerheads are about 5 mm in diameter, the naked peduncles up to 50 mm long. Flowering happens from late winter to after midspring.

The subspecies distribution is widespread, the plants occurring in all nine South African provinces and more widely in southern Africa. The photo was taken at Minwater near Oudtshoorn.

The habitat is dry lower slopes and flats, the plants growing in grassland, bushveld, scrub, renosterveld, fynbos and more. The subspecies is not considered threatened in habitat early in the twenty first century (Van Rooyen and Van Rooyen, 2019; Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Bond and Goldblatt, 1984; iNaturalist; http://redlist.sanbi.org).