Dimorphotheca

Dimorphotheca is a genus of annual or perennial herbs and shrubs in the Asteraceae family. Their leaves are alternate, often coarsely toothed and sometimes lobed to slightly over halfway to the midrib.

The often large flowerheads bear both ray and disc florets, the receptacles below flat or convex. The bell-shaped involucres consist of one or two rows of free bracts that are linear or pointed, sometimes with membranous margins.

The ray florets that often close at night are mostly female or sterile, double as long as the bracts or longer. Ray floret colours range from white to yellow, orange or purple, often darker on their lower (outer) surfaces. The tiny, compactly arranged, yellow or purple disc florets in the centre of the flowerhead are bisexual or male, tubular and widening into five lobes.

The fruit growing from a ray is three-angled and has no pappus. Disc fruit are flat and disc-shaped with thickened rim and also no pappus.

The generic name, Dimorphotheca, is derived from the Greek words dis meaning twice, morphe meaning shape and theka denoting a fruit, referring to the two different seed shapes produced by the ray and the disc florets of the Dimorphotheca species, as well as by the other genera of the Calenduleae tribe of the Asteraceae family.

There are about 19 Dimorphotheca species, all growing in southern Africa.

The plant in picture is believed to be Dimorphotheca ecklonis (Leistner, (Ed.), 2000; Manning, 2009; Wikipedia; http://pza.sanbi.org).