The Canary Island Daisy: Asteriscus sericeus
Asteriscus sericeus

A yellow radiate flower head “riding a sea” of soft, silky-haired leaves
Flowering plants of the genus Asteriscus are native to Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, including the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean west of Morocco. Asteriscus sericeus is endemic to the islands of this Spanish archipelago—hence, its common name Canary Island daisy.

This species of the sunflower family (Asteraceae) is adapted to the mild climate of the Canaries frequently influenced by dry African winds: it is drought-tolerant, but not-freezing-tolerant. The picture was taken in the Botanical Garden of the Dresden University of Technology in Saxony, Germany, where I came upon a beautiful display of Canary Island daisies (late Summer of 2018). The picture shows a typical radiate flower head with an orange-yellow “sun disk” consisting of disc florets of minute flowers opening in nearly concentric rings. The central disk is surrounded by a large number of yellow ray florets—each petal-like ray also being an individual flower. Silky hairs give the one to two inch long oblanceolate leaves a somewhat fuzzy appearance.
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