Winter Euryops (Euryops abrotanifolius), a shrub daisy previously endemic to the Western Cape fynbos of South Africa.
This is a plant adapted to winter rainfall settings on exposed granite, sandy bluffs and other skinny, free-draining soils, and sporting feathery foliage and everyone’s (no one’s) favourite yellow daisy flowers.
The authorities seem to have split on whether this species belongs in Euryops or in Othonna, a genus of succulent asters that includes the Ruby Necklace plant you’ve probably seen at your fancy neighbourhood potted plant store.
Euryops abrotanifolius was described in an 1893 minutes of the S.A. Gardeners’ Society as ‘a nice yellow winter-blooming perennial’, just about the only relevant reference for this species name before it resurfaces in late twentieth century collections as a weed in odd pockets of Victoria, SA and Tassie.
In the meantime, from 1899 to 1954, various columnists refer to Othonna Athanasiae (yes, capitalised because…):
‘A very useful shrub, the foliage is handsome…’
‘Blooms in the cold, dull months when other blooms are scarce,’
‘Only in the Dandenongs have I seen it used so freely as hedges, yet I know of no other plant that would give the same amount of color at this time of the year—and earlier,’
‘Such a good winter-flowering everygreen that it should be still more widely cultivated,’
And, of course,
‘Easily raised from the seed of blooms now dying off.’
Seen here on steep north-facing slopes below Destiny Point / Kalorama, where evidently escaped from one of those gold-spackled hill station hedges.
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Search for information about Euryops abrotanifolius in the Flora of Victoria
View information and occurrences of Euryops abrotanifolius on the Atlas of Living Australia