Ursinia cakilefolia glossy-eyed flowerheads

Ursinia cakilefolia, commonly the glossy-eye ursinia, grows its flowerheads solitary on long, thin, wiry peduncles from stem-tips.

The single whorl of ray florets is yellow or orange. The central disc is black, smooth and glossy apart from where disc florets open yellow as in the photo. The plant’s Afrikaans common name of glansoogbergmagriet (gloss eye mountain marguerite or daisy), sometimes gansoogbergmagriet (goose eye mountain marguerite), refers to this shiny dark eye in the daisy, echoing the English name.

There is sometimes a black ring around the disc, formed by small markings at the ray blade bases. The daisy is from 2,5 cm to 5 cm in diameter. Flowering happens from before midwinter to after midspring.

The pappus crowning each fruit bears five pale scales and five bristles (Manning, 2007; Manning and Goldblatt, 1997; Bond and Goldblatt, 1984; iNaturalist; http://pza.sanbi.org).