Gorteria

Gorteria
zaka plant
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Eudicots
(unranked): Asterids
Order: Asterales
Family: Asteraceae
Tribe: Arctotideae[1]
Genus: Gorteria
L.
Type species
Gorteria personata
L.
Synonyms[1]

Ictinus Cass.

Gorteria is a genus of flowering plants in the daisy family.[2][3] It was named in honour of the Dutch physicists and botanists Johannes de Gorter and his son David de Gorter.

Researchers from Stellenbosch University and the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Pietermaritzburg showed that the ray florets of G. diffusa strongly resemble the bodies of female flies and cause male bombyliid flies to try to copulate with flowers, whilst they pollinate the flower.[4][5]

Species[1]
  1. Gorteria corymbosa DC. - Cape Provinces, Namibia
  2. Gorteria diffusa Thunb. – Cape Provinces
  3. Gorteria personata L. – Cape Provinces; naturalised in Western Australia

References

  1. 1 2 3 Flann, C (ed) 2009+ Global Compositae Checklist
  2. Linnaeus, Carl von. 1759. Systema Naturae, Editio Decima 2: 1229, 1358, 1377 in Latin
  3. Tropicos, Gorteria L.
  4. Johnson, S; Midgley, J (1997). "Fly pollination of Gorteria diffusa (Asteraceae), and a possible mimetic function for dark spots on the capitulum". American journal of botany. 84 (4): 429. doi:10.2307/2446018. PMID 21708596.
  5. Ellis, A. G.; Johnson, S. D. (2009). "The evolution of floral variation without pollinator shifts in Gorteria diffusa (Asteraceae)". American Journal of Botany. 96 (4): 793. doi:10.3732/ajb.0800222.


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