''Dais'' is a

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 ...

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 ...

s in the family

Thymelaeaceae The Thymelaeaceae are a cosmopolitan family of flowering plants composed of 50 genera (listed below) and 898 species.Zachary S. Rogers (2009 onwards)A World Checklist of Thymelaeaceae (version 1) Missouri Botanical Garden Website, St. Louis. It ...

. It is also part of the Gnidia subfamily, along with '' Gnidia'', ''Drapetes'', '' Kelleria'', ''

Pimelea ''Pimelea'', commonly known as rice flowers, is a genus of plants belonging to the family Thymelaeaceae. There are about 150 species, including 110 in Australia and thirty six in New Zealand. Description Plants in the genus ''Pimelea'' are he ...

'', ''

Struthiola ''Struthiola'' is a genus of plants in the family Thymelaeaceae. In habit they are ericoid shrubs or shrublets. Overview There are forty-odd species, mainly South African, mainly occurring in the Western Cape, about 25 endemic to fynbos. Their ...

'', '' Lachnaea'' and ''

Passerina The genus ''Passerina'' is a group of birds in the cardinal family (Cardinalidae). Although not directly related to Bunting (bird), buntings in the family Emberizidae, they are sometimes known as the North American buntings (the North American ...

'', other

genera Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nomenclat ...

of species).Klaus Kubitzki and Clemens Bayer (editors) It is distributed between Tanzania to S. Africa, Madagascar. It is

native Native may refer to: People * Jus soli, citizenship by right of birth * Indigenous peoples, peoples with a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory ** Native Americans (disambiguation) In arts and entert ...

to the countries of

Eswatini Eswatini ( ; ss, eSwatini ), officially the Kingdom of Eswatini and formerly named Swaziland ( ; officially renamed in 2018), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It is bordered by Mozambique to its northeast and South Africa to its no ...

Lesotho Lesotho ( ), officially the Kingdom of Lesotho, is a country landlocked country, landlocked as an Enclave and exclave, enclave in South Africa. It is situated in the Maloti Mountains and contains the Thabana Ntlenyana, highest mountains in Sou ...

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

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 ...

Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands and ...

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 ...

and it is also found within several

Provinces of South Africa South Africa is divided into nine provinces. On the eve of the 1994 general election, South Africa's former homelands, also known as Bantustans, were reintegrated, and the four existing provinces were divided into nine. The twelfth, thirteenth ...

, such as

Cape Provinces The Cape Provinces of South Africa is a biogeographical area used in the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD). It is part of the WGSRPD region 27 Southern Africa. The area has the code "CPP". It includes the Sout ...

, Free State,

KwaZulu-Natal KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN and known as "the garden province") is a province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu) and Natal Province were merged. It is locate ...

and

Northern Provinces The Northern Provinces of South Africa is a biogeographical area used in the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD). It is part of the WGSRPD region 27 Southern Africa. The area has the code "TVL". It includes the S ...

General description

It has

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...

,Christopher Brickell many-branched shrubs or trees. The bush or tree can reach up to 10 ft. The branches are dark or greyish brown and glabrous (smooth). The leaves are often at the ends of the branches and are opposite or alternate (arranged along the stem). They are petiolate (have a stalk) and have a smooth blade. They have a slightly bluish tinge above and are light green beneath, with the midrib and

pinnate Pinnation (also called pennation) is the arrangement of feather-like or multi-divided features arising from both sides of a common axis. Pinnation occurs in biological morphology, in crystals, such as some forms of ice or metal crystals, and in ...

lateral veins yellow beneath. The flowers have a dense, peduncle (have a flower stalk) and the terminal head, has

involucral 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 (a structure surrounding or supporting, usually a head of flowers) is rigid and persistent.B. Peterson (

University of Göteborg The University of Gothenburg ( sv, Göteborgs universitet) is a university in Sweden's second largest city, Gothenburg. Founded in 1891, the university is the third-oldest of the current Swedish universities and with 37,000 students and 6000 st ...

), ''Thymelaeaceae''. Flora of Tropical East Africa. 1978 The involucre is four-leaved, William Nicholson It has a spherical head of flowers. It has a cylindric calyx-tube, which is often slightly curved, and is circumscissile (opens at the top) above the ovary. It has 5 (rarely 4) lobes, with the outer lobes slightly larger than the inner. It has no

petals Petals are modified leaves that surround the reproductive parts of flowers. They are often brightly colored or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. All of the petals of a flower are collectively known as the ''corolla''. Petals are usually ...

, but 10

stamen The stamen (plural ''stamina'' or ''stamens'') is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filame ...

. It has a single chambered

ovary The ovary is an organ in the female reproductive system that produces an ovum. When released, this travels down the fallopian tube into the uterus, where it may become fertilized by a sperm. There is an ovary () found on each side of the body. ...

, with one seed or fruit.

Taxonomy

First published in Sp. Pl. ed. 2 on page 556 in 1762, by

Adriaan van Royen Adriaan van Royen (11 November 1704 in Leiden – 28 February 1779 in Leiden) was a Dutch botanist. He was a professor at Leiden University and is associated with Carl Linnaeus. He is best known for his work on flora of Southeast Asia. Adr ...

, based on an earlier description by

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

. The genus name is derived from 'Dais' which means a 'torch' in

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

, and it refers to the resemblance of the stalk and bracts holding the flowers to a torch about to be lit. The

type specimen In biology, a type is a particular wiktionary:en:specimen, specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally attached. In other words, a type is an example that serves to a ...

is ''Dais cotinifolia'' L. In 1807, was originally placed within ''Vipreculae'' family, (which all had an involucre which was 4 leaved, many flowered, no perianth, one petalled, funnel-formed, tube filiform, and border 5 cleft. There were 3 known species; ''Dais cotinifolia'', ''Dais ocranda'' and ''Dais difperma''.

Thomas Moore Thomas Moore (28 May 1779 – 25 February 1852) was an Irish writer, poet, and lyricist celebrated for his ''Irish Melodies''. Their setting of English-language verse to old Irish tunes marked the transition in popular Irish culture from Irish ...

notes that there was 7 species in the genus in 1874. It was verified by

United States Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the United States federal executive departments, federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, ...

and the

Agricultural Research Service The Agricultural Research Service (ARS) is the principal in-house research agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). ARS is one of four agencies in USDA's Research, Education and Economics mission area. ARS is charged with ext ...

on 17 September 1996.

Species

2 accepted species are known;(according to Kew) * '' Dais cotinifolia'' L. 'African button flower' (from South Africa, Eswatini, Tanzania, Zimbabwe) * '' Dais glaucescens'' Decne (from Madagascar) (has synonyms ''Dais madagascariensis'' Bojer ex Meisn., ''Dais rhamnifolia'' Baill. and ''Lasiosiphon rhamnifolius'' Baker) The US-based GRIN only accepts ''Dais cotinifolia'' L.

Uses

Both species are used as

ornamentals Ornamental plants or garden plants are plants that are primarily grown for their beauty but also for qualities such as scent or how they shape physical space. Many flowering plants and garden varieties tend to be specially bred cultivars that i ...

within gardens, grown for their flowers and the overall appearance.

Cultivation

Within the garden setting, the plants are frost tender, require full sun and well drained soils. It is recommended to water containerized plants well when in growth and less when leafless. It is possible to

propagate Propagation can refer to: *Chain propagation in a chemical reaction mechanism *Crack propagation, the growth of a crack during the fracture of materials *Propaganda, non-objective information used to further an agenda *Reproduction, and other forms ...

the plants, by seed in spring or by semi-ripe cuttings in summer.

References

Other sources

* Bredenkamp, C. L. & J. B. P. Beyers. 2003. Thymelaeaceae in Plants of Southern Africa: an annotated checklist. Strelitzia 14: 928–935. * Peterson, B. 2006. Thymelaeaceae. Fl. Zambes. 9(3): 85–117. * Peterson, B. 1978. Thymelaeaceae. 1–37. In W. B. Turrill & R. M. Polhill (ed.) Fl. Trop. E. Africa. A. A. Balkema, Rotterdam.

External links

Species listing: ''Gnidia''.
Red List of South African Plants. South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI). {{Taxonbar, from=Q8353440 Thymelaeoideae Malvales genera Flora of Africa Plants described in 1762 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus