Gazania nivea

Perennial of the Asteraceae family, Gazania nivea is native to South Africa, where it grows on sandy coasts, dunes, and rocky garrigues of the Western Cape. It belongs to the group of stoloniferous gazanias, adapted to poor, dry, and well-drained soils, exposed to full sun.

It forms a creeping and dense carpet 10 to 15 cm high, spreading by stolons to gradually cover large areas. The foliage is one of its most immediately recognizable features: the leaves, entire and narrow, are densely covered with a silvery white tomentum, giving the entire carpet a very bright gray-white hue, remarkable even when not in bloom.

The capitula, borne individually on short peduncles, are a bright and clear yellow, with broad and radiating ligules around a dark central disc. As with all gazanias, the flowers close at night and in cloudy weather.

In its natural habitat, its flowering extends from spring to summer. In cultivation under Mediterranean or mild climates, it can bloom from March to July.

It requires full sun and very well-drained, sandy or gravelly soil, and withstands prolonged summer drought. It does not tolerate excess moisture in winter. Not very hardy under severe cold, it is ideal in rock gardens, along sandy paths, or in association with other Cape plants.