Gerbera ambigua

Gerbera ambigua, commonly the pink and white gerbera and in Afrikaans the botterblom (butter flower), is a resprouting perennial growing a tuft or rosette of basal leaves and reaching 35 cm with a flowerhead present. The roots are thick and thong-like. The specific name ambigua is derived from the Latin adjective, ambiguus, meaning ambiguous, uncertain or doubtful, referring to the variable nature of the species, hard to demarcate precisely.

The simple leaves on short petioles are mostly angled up. The leaf-shape is elliptic with bluntly pointed tips and about entire or finely toothed margins. The blades are green and sometimes thinly hairy on top, white or yellowish felted below. The midrib is cream and conspicuous in the lower leaf part, less so further up with parallel, incurving lateral veins branching near the margins and sunken on the upper surfaces. The blades may appear from glossy to quilted. The leaf dimensions are from 5 cm to 8 cm long and from 2,5 cm to 3,5 cm wide. The petioles are from 2 cm to 3 cm long.

The species distribution is widespread across the east of South Africa, found in all provinces apart from the Northern Cape. It also grows in some neighbouring countries and in tropical Africa.

The habitat is mainly grassland, woodland, scrub and bushveld. The habitat population is deemed of least concern early in the twenty first century.

The leaves feature in traditional medicine, relating to treating colds and tapeworm. This is a hardy garden plant (Euston-Brown and Kruger, 2023; Manning, 2009; Pooley, 1998; Gledhill, 1981; iNaturalist; http://redlist.sanbi.org).