Gazania linearis.
The Treasure flower or Hardy gazania is naturalised all over Australia.
The perennial tuft-forming plants, up to 30 cm high grow from rhizomes that may be branched.
Alternate leaves, concentrated at the base have blades that taper at the base and may sheath the short stem.
They come in 2 forms with most being entire but a few can be lobed often on the same plant.
Undivided linear to lanceolate leaves, up to 30 cm long and 1 cm wide have a pointed tip.
Oblanceolate lobed leaves are shorter and wider being up to 20 cm long by 4 to 5 cm wide with rounded or pointed lobe tips.
Leaf edges may curve under and some have small teeth.
The green upper leaf surface may have a few long tangled hairs but the lower, apart from the midvein is covered with long matted white hairs.
G. linearis differs from G. rigens by having dead leaves that stay on the plant.
Flower heads, up to 6 or 8 cm across are on a leafless stalk or scape 10 to 35 cm long.
The 2 or 3 rows of bracts or phyllaries in the involucre are up to 2 cm long.
The bases are fused into a cup-like structure with lance-shaped or linear lobes.
The lobes are the same length as the base or slightly longer.
The pointed lobes usually have spines or stiff hairs on the edges or sometimes dark wings.
The up to 20 ray florets, with a ligule on a short tube are up to 4 cm long and 1 cm wide.
The upper surface of the orange or yellow ligule usually has a dark area at the base with a white spot in it.
The lower or outer surface often has a darker stripe down it.
The darker yellow disk florets have 5 pointed lobes on the longer tubular base.
Fruit from the bisexual disk florets consist of a pale brown oblong seed around 2 to 3 mm long.
The other flower parts remain with the seed still enclosed in the hairy ovary.
The many white silky hairs attached to the top of the inferior ovary almost hide the scales in the pappus.
The pappus is the tuft of around 7 narrow scales 4 to 5 mm long attached to the top of the ovary at the outer surface of the base of the corolla.
No true species plants seen but many of the features described above are illustrated on the Gazania genus page.
J.F.
