Stunning Barberton Daisies

One of South Africa’s most important contributions to world horticulture is the Barberton daisy, a beautiful, usually orange- or red-flowered herbaceous perennial in the Asteraceae family.

- Graham Duncan

The genus Gerbera has about 40 species distributed in Africa, Asia and South America, of which about 15 species occur in South Africa. The scientific name Gerbera jamesonii commemorates the German naturalist Traugott Gerber (1710-1743) and the Scotsman Robert Jameson (1832-1919). Jameson operated a jam manufacturing business in Durban and later a gold mine near Barberton, where he collected the plant in 1884. However, the actual discovery of the plant had been made some years earlier in 1875 by William Greenstock in the Houtbosch area of Mpumalanga. On his return to Durban, Jameson brought back plants or seeds, which were grown by John Medley Wood, curator of the Durban Botanic Garden, who sent live specimens to Kew Gardens in 1888. A plant flowered at Kew the following year, and the first colour painting was published in Curtis’s Botanical Magazine in 1889.