Monarch-of-the-veld

Venidium fastuosum (Jacquin) Stapf

Annuals, 10–45(–80) cm, hirsute to woolly. Leaves: basal lance-olate to oblanceolate, 4–9 cm × 15–25 mm, margins pinnatifid to pinnatisect; distal cauline smaller (sessile, bases clasping, margins entire). Peduncles (10–)18–22 cm, with 3 or more leaves. Phyllaries: outer spreading linear (bases ± broad), abaxial faces arachnose to hirsute; inner appressed ± lanceolate (apices rounded, hyaline, ciliate). Ray florets 35–50 in 2 series; corolla laminae 30–55, 4–7 mm, adaxial faces orange to yellow (outer unmarked or with smaller or less distinct marks, inner marked basally with purple-brown fans ¹/8–¹/4 their lengths). Cypselae ovoid, 1.3–1.5 mm, glabrous; pappi 0 or coroniform. 2n = 18.

Flowering spring–summer. Roadsides, urban waste places; 0–500 m; introduced; Calif.; Africa.