Family Asteraceae
This is a fast-growing, soft, herbaceous groundcover that forms carpets of light green foliage decorated with cheerful, butter-yellow daisy flowers almost all year round.
The leaves are 10-15 cm long with a wavy edge, the upper surface a fresh light green, while the undersides are white and felted, with the midrib quite prominent. The leaves and stems are covered with small white hairs. The single daisy flowers are formed on stems that are about 20 cm long. Each flower is about 4 cm in diameter and the centre and the petals, or ray florets, are a bright golden yellow. The undersides of the petals are purplish brown and are clearly visible when the flowers are in bud or closed during a cloudy day.
The genus Arctotis occurs in southern Africa and Angola, and there are about 50 different species. The botanical name Arctotis is derived from the Greek arktos, a bear and otis, an ear. Just what part of these plants reminded the Swedish botanist Linnaeus of the ear of a bear is unclear, one reference calling it 'a Linnaean flight of fancy'! Arctotis arctotoides was once classified in the genus Venidium, which makes sense of the species name arctotoides, which means 'resembling the genus Arctotis'.
The rural people of Eastern Cape are known to use Arctotis arctotoides for the treatment of epilepsy, indigestion and catarrh of the stomach, and the leaf juice or a paste of the leaf is applied topically to treat wounds. Studies have shown that extract of the leaf does have anti-bacterial properties.
