Zaluzianskya venusta

Zaluzianskya venusta, in Afrikaans commonly the verfblommetjie (little paint flower), is an annual that reaches heights around 15 cm. The plant may be single-stemmed or grow a few branches.

The simple, ovate to elliptic and opposite leaves with pointed tips are glandular hairy, up to 20 mm long and 10 mm wide. The upper leaves are smaller, the dark green blades coarse, slightly folded or curving in and the margins entire.

The flowers grow in flat-topped, head-like spikes of up to 30 flowers forming an inflorescence. There are bracts near the calyces. Corolla colour varies between pink, mauve and bluish, the throats yellow with red purple spots at the petal lobe bases and orange on the lower surfaces. The five spreading corolla lobes end in elaborately bilobed tips. Flower diameter is about 15 mm, the corolla tube about 25 mm long. The four yellow anthers are exserted, the thread-like style even more.

The specific name, venusta, is derived from the Latin word venustus meaning charming or beautiful, referring to the colourful flowers.

Flowering happens in winter and spring.

The species distribution is inland in the Western Cape, the Northern Cape Karoo and the west of the Free State. The photo was taken near Vanwyksdorp in the Little Karoo.

The habitat is karoid scrubveld and succulent Karoo. The species is not considered threatened in habitat early in the twenty first century (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; iNaturalist; https://www.worldfloraonline.org; http://redlist.sanbi.org).