Dimorphotheca ecklonis DC.
Kapmargerite (DE), Vanstaden's river daisy
Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.
Summary
Dimorphotheca ecklonis, also known as Cape Marguerite, African daisy, Van Staden's River daisy, Sundays River daisy, white daisy bush, blue-and-white daisy bush, star of the veldt, Kaapse magriet, jakkalsbos, Vanstadensrivier madeliefie, or Sondagsrivier madeliefie is a perennial ornamental plant that is native to South Africa. It features white ray florets and a dark blue centre and is part of the Asteraceae family. The species is named after Christian Friedrich Ecklon, a Danish botanical collector who explored the flora of the Cape in the early 1800s. It is regarded as an invasive plant in parts of Australia, particularly Victoria and Western Australia.
Text from Wikipedia, “Dimorphotheca ecklonis”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.
About the genus · Dimorphotheca
Dimorphotheca is a genus of plants in the family Asteraceae, native to southern Africa. is one of eight genera of the Calenduleae, with a centre of diversity in Southern Africa. Species are native to Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. Some species can hybridize with Osteospermum, and crosses are sold as cultivated ornamentals.
Text from Wikipedia, “Dimorphotheca”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.
At a glance
Also known as Osteospermum ecklonis (DC.) Norl.
Cultivation
Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (February and April to October in the northern hemisphere).
This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.
The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (411 mm of 540 mm) takes 8 months, October to April and August. Mean temperature moves 8.6 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: February and April to October.
Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.
Rain Habitat rain 540 mm a year, wettest March at 63 mm, driest May at 31 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
540 mm a year at the habitat, 411 mm of it October to April and August. Wettest month March at 63 mm, driest May at 31 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 450 mm to 851 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).
CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.
Light Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 46 mol/m²/day.
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 46 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 16, the highest 90th-percentile month 50).
CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.
Warmth and air Cold floor 2.8 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 2.8 °C, the absolute minimum -1.1 °C, 3 frost nights in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 41.5 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 7.3 °C in July (across the envelope cells 5.0 °C to 10.8 °C), warmest day 26.2 °C in February (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 2.8 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).
NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.
Relative humidity at the habitat: 54 to 62% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.
CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.
The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.
Climate across the habitat
Figures by month
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 26 / 23–28 | 26 / 23–28 | 25 / 22–27 | 23 / 20–24 | 21 / 18–22 | 18 / 16–20 | 18 / 16–20 | 19 / 16–20 | 20 / 17–22 | 21 / 19–23 | 23 / 20–25 | 24 / 22–27 |
| Night °C | 16 / 14–18 | 17 / 15–18 | 15 / 14–17 | 13 / 11–15 | 11 / 9–14 | 8 / 6–12 | 7 / 5–11 | 8 / 6–11 | 9 / 8–12 | 11 / 9–13 | 13 / 11–15 | 15 / 13–17 |
| Rain mm | 45 / 36–69 | 42 / 34–62 | 63 / 51–80 | 47 / 39–72 | 31 / 27–68 | 32 / 24–75 | 33 / 27–82 | 48 / 38–88 | 33 / 28–61 | 60 / 50–90 | 56 / 47–82 | 50 / 42–77 |
| DLI | 45 / 44–49 | 40 / 39–44 | 33 / 32–36 | 26 / 24–27 | 20 / 19–21 | 17 / 16–18 | 19 / 17–20 | 23 / 22–25 | 31 / 29–32 | 37 / 36–39 | 43 / 42–47 | 46 / 45–50 |
| RH % | 61 / 59–64 | 62 / 59–64 | 62 / 60–64 | 60 / 58–62 | 57 / 54–60 | 55 / 52–58 | 54 / 51–58 | 57 / 55–60 | 59 / 58–61 | 60 / 59–62 | 61 / 59–63 | 60 / 58–63 |
Each figure is the median across the 26 grid cells holding the 40 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 2474:4092 (-33.725, 24.625). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -1.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 2.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 41.5 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 26 distinct grid cells holding the 40 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2474:4092 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -33.50_24.375, lapse-corrected -337 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 290 m (cell mean).
Natural habitat
Photographs
Photographs: (c) Louis Imbeau, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) James C. Davis, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (5).
Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.
Papers naming this species
Works whose title or abstract names Dimorphotheca ecklonis, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.
Related
Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.
Haworthia magnifica Asphodelaceae Geissorhiza bracteata Iridaceae
Ceropegia thunbergii Apocynaceae
Tulista marginata Asphodelaceae
Haworthia retusa Asphodelaceae Bulbine erectipilosa AsphodelaceaeOther Dimorphotheca 3 in the reference
Dimorphotheca fruticosa Asteraceae
Dimorphotheca jucunda Cape daisy
Dimorphotheca sinuata African beauty History & registers
Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)wcvp.distribution answeredgbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zamclimate answeredwikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedinat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedinat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)gbif.media answeredopenalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedEvery upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 93 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.