Purple Osteospermum flower (African Daisy)

The name Osteospermum is derived from the Greek osteon (= bone) and Latin spermum (= seed). Osteospermums belong to the daisy family ( Compositae / Asteraceae), hence their common names: African Daisy or South African Daisy, Cape Daisy and Blue-eyed Daisy.

The flower heads have a central disc and petals in the shape of ray florets. The central disc comes in several colours, such as blue, yellow and purple. The colours of the petals vary from white, cream, pink, purple, mauve to yellow. They sometimes have a different shade at the tips, or towards the end of the petal. Some varieties have spoon shaped petals.

The hardier varieties mostly have a distinct yellow disc, which is dark blue in the centre. These must be extremely hardy to have survived the very severe cold weather we experienced in the early part of the year.