They produce large, daisy-like composite flowerheads in brilliant shades of yellow and orange, over a long period in summer.[7] They are often planted as drought-tolerant groundcover.
Gazania is a member of the tribeArctotideae and the subtribeGorteriinae. Within the subtribe it is close to Hirpicium and Gorteria.[10] Many of the speciesofGazania are hard to distinguish and the number of species assigned to the genus has varied widely from one author to another.
In 1959, Helmut Roessler published what he considered to be a preliminary revision of Gazania. At that time, he recognized 16 species.[11] Roessler published some amendments to his treatment in 1973.[12]
In 2009, a phylogeny of the genus was published. It was based on molecular phylogenetic analysis of chloroplast and nuclearDNA sequences.[9] In this study, all of Roessler's species except Gazania othonnites were sampled. The authors found that eight species were not really separate, but formed a species complex. The seven species found to be distinct were G. jurineifolia, G. caespitosa, G. ciliaris, G. tenuifolia, G. heterochaeta, G. schenckii, and G. lichtensteinii.
The genus occurs from low-altitude sands to alpine meadows[7] in South Africa, Eswatini, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Angola.[8] Additionally, species are naturalised and declared weed in South Australia, New Zealand, the Mediterranean, and California.[8][13]
Gazania species are grown for the brilliant colour of their flowerheads which appear in the late spring and are often in bloom throughout the summer into autumn. They prefer a sunny position and are tolerant of dryness and poor soils.[14]
Numerous cultivars have been selected for variety of colour and habit. In temperate regions, they are usually grown as half-hardy annuals.[7] A commonly grown variety is the trailing gazania (Gazania rigens var. leucolaena). It is commonly used as groundcover and can be planted en masse to cover large areas or embankments, assisted by its fast growth rate. Cultivars of this variety include 'Sunburst', 'Sunglow', and 'Sunrise Yellow'.[14] Another popular cultivated variety is the clumping gazania (Gazania rigens), which has a number of named cultivars including 'Aztec', 'Burgundy', 'Copper King', 'Fiesta Red', 'Goldrush' and 'Moonglow'.
[14]
^Per Ola Karis. 2007. "Arctotideae" pages 200-207. In: Klaus Kubitzki (series editor); Joachim W. Kadereit and Charles Jeffrey (volume editors). The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants volume VIII. Springer-Verlag: Berlin; Heidelberg, Germany.
^ abcRHS A-Z encyclopedia of garden plants. United Kingdom: Dorling Kindersley. 2008. p. 1136. ISBN978-1405332965.
^ abSeranne Howis, Nigel P. Barker, and Ladislav Mucina. 2009. "Globally grown, but poorly known: species limits and biogeography of Gazania Gaertn. (Asteraceae) inferred from chloroplast and nuclear DNA sequence data". Taxon58(3):871-882.
^Vicki A. Funk and Raymund Chan. 2008. "Phylogeny of the Spiny African Daisies (Compositae, tribe Arctotideae, subtribe Gorteriinae) based on trnL-F, ndhF, and ITS sequence data". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution48(1):47-60.
^Helmut Rössler. 1959. "Revision der Arctotideae - Gorteriinae (Compositae)". Mitteilungen der Botanischen Staatssammlung München3:71-500.
^Helmut Roessler. 1973. Mitteilungen der Botanischen Staatssammlung Muenchen11:91-99.
^"Genus Gazania". PlantNET - New South Wales Flora Online. Royal Botanic Gardens & Domain Trust, Sydney Australia. Retrieved 2008-04-11.
