Flora of North America species comparison

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Osteospermum

daisybush
Habit Perennials, subshrubs, or shrubs [annuals], 5–150+ cm.
Stems

procumbent to erect [prostrate], glabrous or arachnose to piloso-hirtellous and/or stipitate-glandular.
Leaves

sessile or petiolate;

blades orbiculate, elliptic, or oblong to oblanceolate, lanceolate, or linear, margins entire or denticulate [pinnately lobed], faces glabrous or sparsely arachnose and/or stipitate-glandular, often glabrate.
Involucres

campanulate to hemispheric or broader, 5–20+ mm diam.
Receptacles

flat to conic.
Ray florets

10–21+ in ± 1 series;

corollas whitish to purplish or yellow to orange, laminae ± oblong-elliptic to oblanceolate.
Disc florets

12–50+, functionally staminate;

corollas yellow or purplish, tubes shorter than the ± campanulate throats.
Phyllaries

5–21+ in 1–2(–3+) series, lanceolate to lance-linear (apices ± attenuate).
Heads

borne singly [in corymbiform to umbelliform arrays].
Cypselae

triquetrous-prismatic to clavate, often ± tuberculate or ridged and/or winged.
x

= 10.

Osteospermum
Distribution
from USDA
Africa; widely cultivated; sometimes escaping and/or persisting [Introduced in North America]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Species ca. 75 (2 in the flora).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Leaf blades obovate or oblong to oblanceolate, 30–50(–100+) × 0–20(–40+) mm; ray corollas purplish to whitish
O. ecklonis
1. Leaf blades cuneate to clavate, 3–12(–20+) × 1–4+ mm; ray corollas yellow to orange.
O. spinescens
Source FNA vol. 19, p. 382. Author: John L. Strother.
Parent taxa Asteraceae > tribe Calenduleae
Subordinate taxa
O. ecklonis, O. spinescens
Name authority Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 923. (1753): Gen. Pl. ed. 5, 395. (1754)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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