page_title: Mairia
section_title: Distribution and ecology
hierarchical_section_title: Mairia / Distribution and ecology
caption_attribution_description: English: A purple fire daisy, Mairia coriacea, photographed by Tony Rebelo, on 5 March 2017, at Three Sisters Trail above Fairy Glen, near Kleinmond, Caledon County, Western Cape province of South Africa
context_page_description: Mairia is a genus of perennial herbaceous plants assigned to the daisy family. All species have leathery, entire or toothed leaves in rosettes, directly from the underground rootstock, and one or few flower heads sit at the top of the stems that carry few bracts. These have a whorl of white to mauve ray florets surrounding yellow disc florets in the centre. In general, flowering only occurs after the vegetation has burned down. The six species currently assigned to Mairia are endemic to the Western Cape and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa. Some of the species are called fire daisy in English and vuuraster in Afrikaans.
context_section_description: The six species of fire daisy are endemic to the southern mountains of the Western Cape province and the western end of the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. M. burchellii occurs from Piketberg and Ceres in the north, to the southern Cape Peninsula and the Hottentots Holland Mountains in the south, and eastwards to Bredasdorp. M. coriacea may be found between the southern part of the Cape Peninsula in the west, and the Hottentots Holland Mountains, following the coast past Cape Agulhas to the mouth of the Breede River at Witsand in the east. M. crenata has the largest distribution of any species of Mairia. It has an isolated population on Table Mountain. From Du Toitskloof Pass and the Hottentots Holland Mountains in the west, it can be found along the length of the Riviersonderend Mountains, the Langeberg, the Outeniqua Mountains and Tsitsikamma Mountains all the way to the Kouga Mountains on the eastern end. M. hirsuta has a rather limited distribution from near Swellendam to Suurbraak in the Langeberg, and in the isolated range of Warmwaterberg in the Little Karoo to the north. Only a single population of M. petiolata is known, just north of Swellendam in the Langeberg. M. robusta grows from Bainskloof in the north, along Stellenbosch Mountain and Hottentots Holland Mountains to the southern coast near the Kogelberg.
  Mairia only flowers after a fire has burnt the overhead vegetation.
caption: Mairia coriacea, flowering in a burnt veld
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