Cotula barbata [Kleinganskos]

[nfoto]

Rørslett, B. 2022. Cotula barbata DC. Asteraceae. Kleinganskos. South-African flowers photographed in ultraviolet (UV) and visible light. LINK

 

Kleinganskos (Afrikaans) = Little Goose Food

 

The genus Cotula plays an important role in the open vegetation of the dry plains of the Cape provinces. They can occur in large quantities, or be interspersed with other low-growing geophytes or annual species, such as C. barbata..

 

The identification of this plant as Cotula barbata is tentative.

 

The species has an endemic distribution in the Caper provinces (map from http://www.ville-ge.ch/musinfo/bd/cjb/africa/details.php?langue=an&id=99508),

 

 

The small flower heads have tiny ray florets and a semi-capitate shape of the inner disc. A visible light photo is below,

 

 

The tiny rays gasin much more prominence when the flower heads are seen in ultraviolet (UV),

 

All images on this page are copyright Birna Rørslett and may not be used without explicit permission of the author.

 

[Published 11 February, 2022]

[colinbm]

Isn't this one a stunner in UV

[ulf]

In VIS the flowers looks a bit like Tansy, but not in UV if I remember correctly.

 

One detail I miss in almost of these posts is the information of the size of the flowers.

A sunflower looks like a daisy, but is a tiiiny bit bigger, 

 

[nfoto]

I might add such information later. Now it is all about getting through a backlog of 150+ species. This little Cotula was around 15cm tall, so the flower heads are about 10mm across.

 

Tansy Tanacetum has rather uniform UV-grey flower heads.

[Andrea B.]

Tanacetum vulgare: https://www.ultravioletphotography.com/content/index.php?/topic/97-tanacetum-vulgare-tansy/