''Felicia wrightii'' is a low, up to high, perennial, herbaceous plant with conspicuous basal leaf rosettes, and runners that end in rosettes. It has narrow bracts along the inflorescence stalks on top of which are individual flower heads with an involucre of three whorls of bracts, about sixteen ray florets with about long, pale blue straps, that encircle many yellow disc florets. No fertile seeds have been found, so this species may solely reproduce vegetatively. The species is only known from one location in the

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 ...

Drakensberg, where it grows on damp stream banks.

Description

''Felicia wrightii'' is a perennial plant, herbaceous plant, of up to high. Its leaf rosettes usually develop several, up to about long runners, at the end of which daughter rosettes appear. Most leaves are in a rosette, but smaller ones sit alternately on the

stalk Stalk or stalking may refer to: Behaviour * Stalk, the stealthy approach (phase) of a predator towards its prey * Stalking, an act of intrusive behaviour or unwanted attention towards a person * Deer stalking, the pursuit of deer for sport Biol ...

. The rosette leaves are elliptic to inverted egg-shaped, up to 4 cm (1 in) long and 1 cm ( in) wide, with an indistinctly pointed tip, and the surface hairless or quickly becoming so, while the leaf margins are cartilaginous and set with tough bristles. The leaves one the peduncles are line-shaped, up to about 1 mm ( in) long and 1 mm (0.06 in) wide. The

flower heads 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 ...

sit individually at the end of unbranching

, that carry narrow leaves almost to the top, are hairy and are occasionally also glandular. The involucre consists of three whorls of bracts. These bracts are bristly and glandular, becoming less hairy further in. The outer bracts are about long and wide, lance-shaped, the middle bracts about long and wide, and the inner bracts inverted lance-shaped about 6 mm long and 1 mm wide. Each flower head contains about sixteen ray florets, with s pale blue straps of about long and 1 mm (0.06 in) wide. These encircle numerous disc florets with a yellow

corolla Corolla may refer to: *Corolla (botany), the petals of a flower, considered as a unit *Toyota Corolla, an automobile model name * Corolla (headgear), an ancient headdress in the form of a circlet or crown * ''Corolla'' (gastropod), a genus of moll ...

of up to 3 mm (0.14 in) long. In the center of each

are five

anthers 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 filam ...

merged into a tube, through which the style grows when the floret opens, hoovering up the

pollen Pollen is a powdery substance produced by seed plants. It consists of pollen grains (highly reduced microgametophytes), which produce male gametes (sperm cells). Pollen grains have a hard coat made of sporopollenin that protects the gametophyt ...

on its shaft. At the tip of both style branches are slightly elongated triangular appendages. Around the base of the corolla are numerous, white, clearly toothed and persistent pappus bristles of about 4 mm (0.18 in) long. At the base of the florets sit elliptic, short-haired, dry, one-seeded, indehiscent fruits called cypselae of about long and wide, with a smooth seed-skin, possibly all of which are sterile. ''Felicia wrightii'' is a

diploid Ploidy () is the number of complete sets of chromosomes in a cell, and hence the number of possible alleles for autosomal and pseudoautosomal genes. Sets of chromosomes refer to the number of maternal and paternal chromosome copies, respectively ...

having nine sets of homologue chromosomes (2n=18).

Taxonomy

South African botanist Olive Mary Hilliard and English botanist Brian Burtt described ''Felicia wrightii'' in 1971, based on a specimen collected in 1967, by Wright on the banks of a tributary of the Mooi River,

province of South Africa.

Distribution, habitat and conservation

''Felicia wrightii'' grows in the Kamberg Nature Reserve, that is situated in the Estcourt district of the Drakensberg Mountains in KwaZulu-Natal. It is only known from one site, where it occurs in montane grassland, growing in damp soil on the bank of a stream, at an altitude of approximately . However, its population is stable and appears not to be threatened. This is why it is considered critically rare.

References

External links

Line drawing of ''Felicia wrightii''

Distribution map of ''Felicia wrightii''
{{Taxonbar, from= Q15598638 wrightii Flora of Southern Africa Plants described in 1971