Felicia namaquana
Felicia namaquana is a glandular-hairy, branching annual plant of up to high that is assigned to the family Asteraceae. It is sometimes called Bloublommetjie or pers poublom in Afrikaans. Flowering occurs between May and October. It grows in Namibia and South Africa.
Description
Felicia namaquana is a glandular-hairy, robust, often strongly branching annual plant of up to high. The central branch is upright, but lateral branches start off outwards at base, bending upwards. The branches are thickly set with leaves, particularly near the base. The leaves are alternately arranged along the branches except for the basal pair, narrowly to broadly inverted lance-shaped, up to about long and 2–10 mm wide, with a blunt tip, an entire margin, with one central vein, and a roughly and glandular hairy surface.The firm and large flower heads sit individually on top of an almost leafless, hairy stalk of up to long. The involucre is about across, and consisting of two strict rows of equally long bracts. Those in the outer row are about 1 mm wide, lance-shaped, roughly and glandular hairy with a fringe of hairs near the tip. Those in the inner row narrowly obovate, 1 mm wide, with a broad papery margin and eventually hairless. Many female ray florets with a light blue, rarely yellow, strap, are long and 2 mm wide, with a hairy tube. Many bisexual, softly hairy disc florets with a yellow corolla of about long. In the center of each corolla are five anthers merged into a tube, through which the style grows when the floret opens, hoovering up the pollen on its shaft. At the tip of both style branches is a narrowly triangular appendage. Around the base of the corolla are many white pappus bristles with teeth, that are easily discarded. The dry, one-seeded, indehiscent fruits called cypselae are large, 3 mm long and 1 mm wide, inverted egg-shaped, yellowish brown to brown, with a strong marginal ridge, with thick, -1 mm with short, robust hairs.
Felicia namaquana is a diploid having five sets of homologue chromosomes.