Dimorphotheca sinuata

Namaqualand daisy, Namaqualand Daisy

Family: Asteraceae · Type: annual · Not Native

Namaqualand daisy is a naturalized annual found in the San Joaquin Valley, Central Western California, southwestern California, and desert regions in disturbed habitats, roadsides, and occasional wildflower mixes at elevations below 1,000 meters. Flowering from February to June, this plant produces ray flowers 2 to 2.5 centimeters long in stunning orange to yellow colors, sometimes with violet edges, and disk flowers with purple tips. Growing 10 to 30 centimeters tall with erect, glandular-hairy stems that are simple or sparingly branched from the base, it has an upright and delicate form. Its leaves vary from proximal oblong to oblanceolate shapes with bases tapering to petiole-like attachments, while distal leaves become smaller and sometimes linear, ranging from entire to coarsely dentate. The flower heads are impressively large, measuring 3 to 7 centimeters in diameter, with lance-linear phyllaries and distinctive multicolored petals.

Habitat: Escape from cultivation, roadsides, disturbed places, occasionally sown in wildflower mixes

Bloom period: Feb-Jun

Elevation: < 1000 m

Bioregions: SnJV, CW, SW, D

California counties: Ventura, Kern, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Fresno, Imperial, San Luis Obispo, Sutter, Santa Barbara, Contra Costa, Alameda, Stanislaus, Santa Cruz, Santa Clara, Merced, Monterey

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.