Taxa Field Guide
Asteraceae
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Named after the genus Aster. The name Aster comes from the Ancient Greek word ἀστήρ (astḗr), meaning "star", referring to the shape of the flower head.
Arctotheca
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Gk. arktos = a bear; theke = a case, capsule; referring to rough densely woolly fruit.
Aster
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Name from the Greek aster, a star.
Carduus
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Latin name for thistle; Celtic ard = a point. The plants are mostly spiny.
Corymbium
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Gk. korymbos = a cluster; referring to a flat-topped or rounded clustered inflorescence with the lower petals longer that the upper (i.e. a corymb).
Cotula
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Probably Gk. kotule = a little cup or hollow-shaped receptacle; referring to the shape of the involucre or of the flower head. Another source says ‘or the concave base of the stem clasping leaves’.
Curio
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La. curio = lean, emaciated; referring to its appearance.
Dimorphotheca
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Gk. di- = two; morphe = form; theke =a fruit (a case or container); referring to the two different forms of cypselae (fruit) produced by the ray and disk flowers: those of the ray flowers wingless, three-cornered; those of the disk flattened and two-winged.
Erigeron
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Gk. eri = early (er = spring); geron = old man; referring to the fluffy, white seed heads and to the flowers which occur in spring but wilt early and turn grey.
Felicia
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Origin uncertain. La. felix = happy, cheerful, though in the neuter plural form felicia = happy things; possibly a reference to the bright flowers. Other sources vaguely refer to a mysterious German official in Regensburg called Felix who died in 1846 but speculatively and more probably for the Italian Fortunato Bartolomeo de Felice (1723–1789), an Italian scholar established in Yverdon who led the European team that wrote the Yverdon Encyclopedia, published between 1770 and 1780 in 58 quarto volumes. This superseded the Parisian Encyclopedie of Diderot and d’Alembert published between 1751 and 1772.
Gazania
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Gk. gaze, gaza = riches, royal treasure; chloe = grass; or possibly after Theodorus Gaza (many spellings of this name) (1398–1478), a Greek scholar who moved to Italy in 1430. He became professor in Greek at the University of Ferrara (1447) and a Greek-Latin translator for Pope Nicholas V (1450–1455). He worked for King Alfonso V of Aragon (Alphonso the Magnanimous) (1456–1458) and subsequently for Cardinal Bessarion. He translated many works including Aristotle’s Problemata, De Partibus Animalium, and De Generatione Animalium and Theophrastus’ Historia Plantarum, works by noted Greek authors, and a Greek grammar (four books). He is regarded as one of the greatest classical scholars and humanists of the Renaissance.
Helichrysum
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Gk. (h)elios = sun; chrysos = gold; referring to the bright yellow flowerheads of many of the flowers of species in this genus.
Hymenolepis
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Gk. hymen = membrane; lepis = scale; referring to the membranous scales that cover the fruitification.
Lactuca
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Latin for lettuce, from lactis = milky; alluding to the milky latex exuding from the plant when pressed or crushed.
Mairia
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For Louis Maire (f 1815–1833), Prussian plant collector. He served in the Napoleonic Wars with Johannes Ludwig Leopold Mund (Mundia q.v.) and Peter Jonas Bergius (Bergia q.v.). After training as a gardener, he was sent to the Cape with Mund by the Berlin Museum to collect plants and natural history specimens. At least two large consignments were sent to Europe, but their productivity slackened, and Berlin recalled them. They ignored the order. Mund became a surveyor, and Maire apparently set up as a doctor. In 1833 the French Protestant missionary Eugene Casalis met with a ‘Dr Lemaire’, possibly the same man, at Graaff-Reinet, who said he had been a surgeon in the Prussian army when they entered Paris in 1815 and that afterward the King of Prussia had dispatched him on a botanical expedition to South Africa.
Pulicaria
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La. pulex = a flea; aria = pertaining to; alluding to the use of the strong smelling plant as a flea repellent. Hence ‘fleabane’.
Senecio
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La. senex = an old man. The white, hairy pappus of the seeds is reminiscent of an old man’s beard.