Taxonomic Swap 34986
(Committed on 2018-07-12)
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Comments
The above is ancient history. Dimorphotheca and Osteospermum are old genera. There has been some reshuffling recently, and DNA work suggests that there are major taxonomical changes coming soon. However, Dimorphotheca is relatively separate (although sister) from the Osteospermum clade.
The genus Dimorphotheca is endemic to the greater Cape Flora (Succulent Karoo and Fynbos Biomes). Osteospermum is 80 spp in Africa, 40 from Fynbos.
The reference I used is:
http://biodiversityadvisor.sanbi.org/literature/4327-2/strelitzia/ No. 29: Plants of the Greater Cape Floristic Region volume 1: The Core Cape Flora - see pages 786-7 and relevant accounts. Page 800 gives the synapomorphies of the two genera.
This is also the concept used by the southern African Red List Assessment: http://redlist.sanbi.org/species.php?species=3320-18
As far as I can figure out, Dimorphotheca on iNat is up to date with the southern African published conceptualization of the genus.
This will cause some serious churn for captive obs in CA. Do you know if all members of Osteospermum are now in Dimorphotheca? Do you know if this statement on Wikipedia is incorrect: "Osteospermum used to belong to the genus Dimorphotheca, but only the annual species remain in that genus; the perennials belong to Osteospermum"? Finally, can you please cite your source?