The Hilton daisies are starting to flower in our greenhouse! Isabel Johnson (PhD candidate working on the mating system and pollination biology of the Hilton daisy) and I are thrilled to see the first buds open and show us what colour they are! These are seeds we collected back in 2017 in a site somewhere north of KwaZulu-Natal. A beautiful population with mixed colours ranging from red, orange, yellow and some even pink. These seeds were collected from mother plants of which we had previously measured several floral traits, such as flower colour. Now, we can measure these same floral traits on their offspring’s flowers. With the help of gene markers (microsatellites), which we are currently busy developing for this species, we can then also determine who the father was. Naturally, this will tell us about the hereditary nature of flower colour in Gerbera aurantiaca. Linking paternity and the floral traits will also tell us a lot about the pollination and reproductive biology of these plants. For instance, we will be able to know whether pollinators (monkey beetles and solitary bees) tend to travel between flowers alike or unlike, i.e. travel from a red flower to another red flower versus from a red to a yellow flower. This in turn may help us explain the variation of flower colour across populations of the distribution range of Gerbera aurantiaca. Not all populations have individuals with different colours such as the site from which we collected these seeds in northern KwaZulu-Natal. Some populations for instance, are all yellow, others, are all red! Anyways…buds are coming in. A bit slowly for the taste of an anxious scientist who is thirsty for data. Nevertheless … its quite a special treat to presence, especially in light that they have a bad reputation in cultivation and are known to flower only three years after germination. Fingers crossed for more flowers this season! A few words about its conservation status for those who are unaware of it. Gerbera aurantiaca is an endangered endemic found in the mistbelt grasslands of the Maputaland-Pondoland-Albany biodiversity hotspot. Its main threat is habitat destruction and fragmentation. Please withhold your temptation of collecting these handsome plants from the wild …they will most likely not strive in your garden.
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