Gazania rigens (syn. G. splendens), sometimes called treasure flower, is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae, native to coastal areas of southern Africa. It is naturalised elsewhere and is widely cultivated as an ornamental plant.
A Gazania rigens flower with closed petals in the early evening.
Gazania rigens is a spreading, low-growing, half-hardy perennial, growing to 50 cm (20 in) tall and wide, with blue-grey foliage and brilliant yellow, daisy-like composite flowerheads throughout the summer. It is a herbaceous plant that is perennial in South Africa and in the Mediterranean regions, and annual in the gardens of colder regions. It rarely exceeds 30 cm (12 in) and forms tufts, often very abundant. Its leaves all basal, numerous, narrow and more or less lanceolate, usually entire, sometimes pennatilobed. The obverse of the leaves is shiny green, the lapel grayish white.
Like all compounds, gazania flowers in flower heads that are often taken for simple flowers. The capitula are solitary at the end of peduncles just beyond the leaves. Each capitulum is formed by a central disc of tubular flowers, surrounded by ligulate peripheral flowers, whose color is very variable. The orange-yellow flowers are however the most numerous, often with black spots at the base of the ligules. The fruit is an achene, containing several seeds.
Well adapted to the Mediterranean climate, it is native to South Africa and Mozambique. It has become naturalised on the Mediterranean shores, and in places like the Azores, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, France, Portugal, California, and Argentina. The generic name of the plant is dedicated to Theodore of Gaza (1398-1478), who translated the botanical works of Theophrastus, from Greek to Latin.
It is a declared weed in the islands of Madeira, Sicily, and Sardinia.
