Osmitopsis

Osmitopsis is a genus of shrubs and shrublets in the Asteraceae family. They are commonly known as mountain daisies, and in Afrikaans as belskruie (bels herbs). The plants are sometimes hairy and aromatic, tending to be camphor-scented.

The simple leaves are usually alternate and sessile, often narrow. The leaf margins are entire, toothed or rigidly fringed. The blades of some species are felted.

The few to many stem-tip flowerheads grow solitary or few in a corymb. Flowerheads are based on two to four rows of green bracts in bell-shaped involucres. The nearly equal, overlapping bracts may have toothed or entire margins. The receptacles are flat to conical, covered in scales.

The white ray florets are female, fertile (bisexual) or sterile, their limbs longer than the tubes. The numerous, tiny disc florets are yellow, bisexual or sterile, tubular and five-lobed.

The fruit is ovoid, the surfaces angled. Scaly pappuses are sometimes present.

The nine Osmitopsis species are all found in the Western Cape or the Eastern Cape.

The leaves have been used to make brandy tincture, as well as a traditional tonic and an antiseptic.

The species of the plant in picture bearing pointed leaves with finely toothed margins near Pringle Bay has not been determined (Leistner, (Ed.), 2000; Manning, 2007).