Dimorphotheca aurantiaca "African Moon"
Image from Thompson and Morgan
If you think you have an Osteospermum..check again. It seems some companies have been selling Dimorphotheca under Osteospermum. There is a difference surprisinging. Dimorphothecas are annuals that can be grown from seed. Osteospermums are really tender perennials that are mostly hybrids. If it is a hybrid chances are it's seeds will not be true to the original plant. Osteospermum Passion Mix can actually be grown from seed and produce true plants. Because of this most Osteospermums can only be cultivated by cuttings.
I found this out one day when I was looking up information on Osteospermums. I purchased seeds that I thought were Osteospermum because that is what they were labeled. Upon going to the Osteospermum website I began to wonder if I had a true Osteospermum. The website has a list of their cultivars. If you don't find you plant on the list it's not an Osteospermum or you bought it under the wrong name. I looked for mine and it was not on the list. There was no African Moon. That was when I looked under Dimorphotheca and there was African Moon.
This was very interesting to me seeing that there was a difference. Companies selling seeds might not be labeling things correctly and that is a scary thought to me. I would like to know what the name is of what I am buying. I was wondering why I had a hard time finding information on my particular Osteospermum. It was because it wasn't an Osteospermum at all. If you would like more information do look at the Osteospermum website.
1 comment:
This is interesting. I am growing (from seed) both Osteospermum sinuata "African Sun" from Thompson & Morgan as well as Osteospermum "Passion Mix". The seedlings look quite a bit different, though I believe that the species names are different (i.e. both not sinuata), so I didn't think that was unusual.
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