Dimorphotheca nudicaulis

Dimorphotheca nudicaulis, commonly in Afrikaans the witmargriet (white Marguerite), is a rounded perennial growing from a woody rootstock to about 30 cm tall.

The simple, glandular leaves are narrowly lanceolate, usually with toothed and fringed margins. They grow in basal tufts but die back in summer. Leaf dimensions are about 10 cm long and 2,5 cm wide.

The solitary flowerheads are erect on long, hairy peduncles. The specific epithet, nudicaulis, is derived from the Latin words nudus meaning naked and caulis meaning the stem or stalk of a plant, referring to the leafless peduncles.

A ring of white ray florets, coppery or purple on the lower surfaces, spread around a dark purple disc turning yellow in spots where the tiny, five-lobed disc florets open.

Flowerhead diameter is from 4 cm to 5 cm. Flowering happens from late winter to after midspring. The ray florets close at night.

Ray florets produce very small fruit or none. Disc fruits are disc-shaped without a noticeable pappus. 

The species distribution is in the Western Cape and the Northern Cape from around the Bokkeveld Plateau to around Uniondale. The photo was taken near Oudtshoorn.

The habitat is clayey slopes among fynbos, renosterveld and karoid scrub. The species is not considered to be threatened in its habitat early in the twenty first century (Curtis-Scott, et al, 2020; Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Manning, 2009; Andrew, 2017; iNaturalist; http://redlist.sanbi.org).