page_title: Felicia elongata
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: Felicia elongata / Description
caption_attribution_description: English: Saldanha Bay daisy, Felicia elongata, photographed by Chris Vynbos, on 21 September 2014, at Steenbok Trail, Postberg, West Coast National Park, Malmesbury County, Western Cape province of South Africa
context_page_description: Felicia elongata is a perennial plant of up to 40 cm high that is assigned to the daisy family. It has stiff, oval, opposing leaves with one distinctive vein and entire margin. The 5 cm wide flower heads are very conspicuous in colour, white with a dark purple zone at the base of the ray florets and an orange-yellow disc. Flowering occurs from late August to September, or if the rains arrive late, sometimes October. It is a rare species that is restricted to the Saldanha Bay area. It is sometimes called Saldanha felicia or tricolour felicia in English, and driekleurblommetjie in Afrikaans.
context_section_description: Felicia elongata is an upright perennial herbaceous plant with a woody base, of up to about 40 cm (1 ¹⁄₃ ft) high. Its leaves are oppositely arranged along the stem, oval in outline and rigid, 3–4 cm (1 ¹⁄₅–1 ³⁄₅ in) long and 8–10 mm (0.31–0.39 in) wide, with one central vein, rarely two additional veins can be seen. The margin of the leaf is curled downwards, densely roughly hairy on upper side, while the lower surface may lose some of its hairs over time, and is gray-green in colour.
  The flower heads are about 5 cm (2 in) across and sit individually on top of about 15 cm (rarely to 20 cm) long, dense velvety hairy stalks. The involucre is almost 2 cm (⁴⁄₅ in) in diameter, and consist of two strict rows of bracts of about 8 mm (0.31 in) long, more or less fringed at the tip. The outer bracts are narrowly lance-shaped, and 0.8 mm (0.031 in) wide, the inner bracts are lance-shaped and about 1 mm (0.039 in) wide, one-ribbed, losing its hair with time. The numerous female ray florets have a milky white, rarely magenta strap of about 17 mm (²⁄₃ in) long and 3​¹⁄₂ mm wide, near the base with a dark purple zone. Many bisexual, disc florets with an orange-yellow corolla of about 6 mm (¹⁄₄ in) long. In the center of each corolla are five anthers merged into a tube, through which the style grows when the floret opens, hoovering up the pollen on its shaft. Around the base of the corolla are many white pappus bristles of about 6 mm (¹⁄₄ in) long. The dark brown, dry, one-seeded, indehiscent fruits called cypsellae are ellips- to inverted egg-shaped, about 3 mm (0.12 in) long and 1.2 mm (0.047 in) wide, with a marginal ridge, while the surface has some weak scales and is evenly covered in 0.2 mm (0.0079 in) long hairs.
  Felicia elongata is a diploid having eight sets of homologue chromosomes (2n=16).
caption: The involucre
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