''Cineraria deltoidea'' is a

perennial A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also wide ...

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

of the

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Asteraceae The family Asteraceae, alternatively Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. Commonly referred to as the aster, daisy, composite, or sunflower family, Compositae w ...

and the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

Cineraria ''Cineraria'' is a genus of flowering plants in the sunflower family, native primarily to southern Africa with a few species farther north. The genus includes herbaceous plants and small subshrubs. In the past, the genus was commonly viewed ...

'' which is also the closest known relative of the giant ''

Dendrosenecio ''Dendrosenecio'' is a genus of flowering plants in the Asteraceae, sunflower family. It is a segregate (taxonomy), segregate of ''Senecio'', in which it formed the subgenus ''Dendrosenecio''. Its members, the giant groundsels, are native to the ...

'' of

East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territories make up Eastern Africa: Due to the historical ...

Description

Sometimes growing straight upwards but usually more sprawled or trailing, ''Cineraria deltoidea'' can achieve heights of 16 to 60 centimeters (7 to 25 inches) or 15 to 300 centimeters (6 to 128 inches). ;Stems and leaves: Branched

stem Stem or STEM may refer to: Plant structures * Plant stem, a plant's aboveground axis, made of vascular tissue, off which leaves and flowers hang * Stipe (botany), a stalk to support some other structure * Stipe (mycology), the stem of a mushro ...

s often purplish, covered with tufts to dense mats of woolly hairs which are thin and cobweb-like or short and soft. The leaves are attached to the stem with leaf stalks except for the leaves at the top. The leaf shape can be egg shaped (wider than it is long) or "narrowly triangular". 1 to 7 centimeters long and 1 to 10 centimeters wide, the base is heart-shaped or seems cut off at the tip or is "interrupted by a notch". Five to eleven lobes, sometimes with teeth on the tips. Leaves are

green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 Nanometre, nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by ...

and hairless except for the main veins or sometimes with tufts of soft hairs on the underside, which might fall off seasonally. The leaf stalk, 1 to 6 centimeters long, often is narrowly winged and occasionally has one to four small oblong lobes. ;Flowers:

Flower head A pseudanthium (Greek for "false flower"; ) is an inflorescence that resembles a flower. The word is sometimes used for other structures that are neither a true flower nor a true inflorescence. Examples of pseudanthia include flower heads, compos ...

s can be held straight up or sometimes droopy from their stalks and rarely appear alone, more often appearing together in large quantities forming flat-topped

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

in which the central flower opens first. Flower heads each with a cylindrical ring of eight to fourteen pale

with

brown Brown is a color. It can be considered a composite color, but it is mainly a darker shade of orange. In the CMYK color model used in printing or painting, brown is usually made by combining the colors orange and black. In the RGB color model used ...

red Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondar ...

dish brown tipped

bract In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of ...

s, sometimes with hairs but most often without and two to eight bracts simulating a calyx. Four to fourteen

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

en yellow to

lemon The lemon (''Citrus limon'') is a species of small evergreen trees in the flowering plant family Rutaceae, native to Asia, primarily Northeast India (Assam), Northern Myanmar or China. The tree's ellipsoidal yellow fruit is used for culin ...

yellow ray florets and with

yellow Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In the R ...

disc florets. ;Fruits: Dark colored

achene An achene (; ), also sometimes called akene and occasionally achenium or achenocarp, is a type of simple dry fruit produced by many species of flowering plants. Achenes are monocarpellate (formed from one carpel) and indehiscent (they do not ope ...

s, less than 4 millimeters long; pappus is 3 to 6 millimeters long.

Distribution

''Cineraria deltoidea'' is found between the altitudes of 200 to 1,650 meters (660 to 5,400 feet) and is widespread throughout the mountains of the

East African Rift The East African Rift (EAR) or East African Rift System (EARS) is an active continental rift zone in East Africa. The EAR began developing around the onset of the Miocene, 22–25 million years ago. In the past it was considered to be part of a ...

, including the high plateau regions of

Malawi Malawi (; or aláwi Tumbuka: ''Malaŵi''), officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northeast ...

and the

eastern highlands :''"Eastern Highlands" also refers to Eastern Highlands Province in Papua New Guinea, and part of the Great Dividing Range, Australia.'' The Eastern Highlands, also known as the Manica Highlands, is a mountain range on the border of Zimbabwe ...

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...

References

External links

* * * * * {{Taxonbar, from=Q5120876 deltoidea Taxa named by Otto Wilhelm Sonder