Osteospermum – Osteospermum ecklonis

Common Name: Osteospermum

Botanical Name: Osteospermum ecklonis, os-te-o-SPER-mum ek-LON-is

Decorative Life: Lasts from 3-4 plus weeks depending on environment and care.

Flower Color: Blue, Violet, White

Availability: Year Round

Growth retardants are recommended however care must be taken to use the right one at proper rates as leaf damage can result. One growth retardant that reportedly should not be used is Daminozide.

• Member of the Asteraceae or Compositae (aster or sunflower family).
• Native to South and Tropical Africa and Arabia.
• More common relatives include aster, sunflower, daisy, chrysanthemum, lettuce and zinnia.

• Species is classed as a dicotyledon, leaves not parallel veined.
• Flower heads solitary at stem ends, with outer row of ray flowers and inner center of disk flowers.
• Stems are leafy, leaves 2-4 inches long.

• From the Greek “osteon” (a bone) and “sperma” (a seed), referring to the shape of the seeds.
• Will generally do well in light levels at least bright enough to read a newspaper in comfort but more light (up to filtered full sunlight) would be better.
• ‘Calypso’ has a creeping habit with large lilac flowers.
• Some favorite cultivars and their respective flower colors include ‘Seaside’ (salmon), ‘Wildside’ (fuchsia), ‘Zimba’ (white and yellow), ‘Sunscape daisy’ (white and purple bicolor), ‘Sunny Side’ (mostly yellow), ‘Silvia’ (pastels/white) and ‘Brightside’ (white/blue).
• The Compositae or aster family is vast, with over 20,000 species, and is also one of the most developed families. It was named Compositae because the flowers are actually a “composite” of many individual flowers into one head. Hence, when children pull one “petal” off at a time, saying “she/he loves me, loves me not”, they are actually removing a complete flower, not just a petal.