Citation: Gaertner, Fruct. 2:451 (1791) var. rigens.

Synonymy: Gorteria rigens L., Amoen. Acad. 6:105 (1763). , Gazania rigens

Common name: None

Description:
Herbs, often spiny; leaves alternate, often pinnately lobed.

Capitula usually homogamous, discoid, solitary or in terminal corymbs; involucral bracts imbricate in several series, herbaceous, usually with terminal spines or scarious appendages; receptacle hairy or with narrow scales, rarely naked; florets tubular with long narrow corolla lobes, all bisexual and fertile or the outer ones sterile; anthers sagittate to tailed at the base with acute usually subulate terminal appendages; style branches linear, somewhat flattened, erect, united and diverging only at the apex, without sterile appendages; style bulbous and hairy just below the branches.

achenes subterete, laterally compressed, broad at the apex; pappus usually multiseriate, deciduous, of bristles and/or scales, rarely absent.

Published illustration: Morley & Everard (1970) Wildflowers of the world, pl. 83.

Distribution:  About 60 genera, mostly in Europe and Asia, represented in S.Aust. only by naturalised weeds. S.Aust.: EP, MU, YP, SL, SE.   Vic. Conservation status: naturalised Flowering time: most of the year.

SA Distribution Map based on current data relating to specimens held in the State Herbarium of South Australia

Biology: The var. rigens is known only in cultivation and as an escape in various parts of the world, and is apparently derived from the var. uniflora which is native to coastal South Africa.

Author: Not yet available