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Dymondia margaretae (Silver Carpet) - This is a slowly spreading, very flat (just a few inches tall at best) groundcover with 1-2-inch-long narrow leaves that are a gray-green on top with a white tomentose underside. Though flat to the ground, the white undersides are exposed to view as the leaf margins edges roll up and inward, particularly, when grown dry, thus giving the plant an appearance of being variegated. Small yellow daisy flowers bloom amongst the foliage in summer.
Plant in full sun to light shade in a well-drained soil. It grows more rapidly with irrigation, but it has deep succulent roots that make it very drought tolerant, though notably slower growing if grown drier. It is cold hardy to about 25 degrees F. About the only things that this plant does not tolerate well is a heavy or otherwise non-draining soil and gophers. People that have problems with this plant are often overwatering it or have it planted in soils that do not drain adequately. It also does best along the coast as growth slows to a crawl in summer heat inland and then springs back to life with cooler days in fall.
Dymondia margaretae is endemic to the Bredasdorp district of the Western Cape of South Africa and is monotypic, being the only species in this genus. Its naming it the rare case where both the genus and species is named for the same person; it was named for noted South African horticulturalist Margaret Elizabeth Dryden-Dymond (1909-1952).
We first started growing Dymondia in 1985 and it was so rare of a plant back then that there was little information to be found about it. Since that time it has rightfully become a common plant in the California landscape and is often referred to as a Mini Gazania. We thank John Bleck, then manager at the Biology Greenhouses at UCSB at that time for first introducing us to this plant. It had been previously introduced into the nursery trade in 1976 by Ed Carman at his Carman's Nursery in Los Gatos California after he received it from his friend Lyle Pyeatt, then a Cooperative Extension Farm Advisor in Santa Clara County. Pyeatt had imported the plant from Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens in South Africa.
The information about Dymondia margaretae displayed on this web page is based on our research conducted in the nursery's horticultural library and from reliable online resources. We also include observations made about it as it grows in our nursery gardens and other gardens we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments we receive from others and welcome hearing from anyone with additional information, particularly if they can share cultural information that would aid others in growing this plant. |
