.After Herr Felix (?–1846), a German official in Regensburg.
Annual or perennial herbs or shrubs, glabrous to hairy. Stems prostrate to erect. Leaves along stems, less often basal, usually alternate, sometimes opposite, margins entire or toothed. Capitula radiate or sometimes diskoid, terminal, usually solitary, with long stalks. Involucral bracts in 1-several rows, overlapping, unequal. Receptacle pitted, flat. Ray florets female, ligulate or tubular, blue or violet, rarely white or yellow. Disk florets bisexual or functionally male, tubular, yellow. Achenes compressed, ribbed, usually hairy. Pappus of barbed deciduous bristles.
Felicia petiolata (Harv.) N.E. Br. from S Africa is a prostrate perennial spreading to 1 m across, with usually lobed leaves, solitary capitula to 2 cm across and white to violet ray florets. [Aster petiolaris Kuntze]
F. echinata (Thunb.) Nees from S Africa is a subshrub to 60 cm tall with ciliate or spiny entire leaves, capitula to 4 cm across in groups of 1-6 and white to lilac ray florets.
Capitula on long stalks with usually blue or purple ray florets.
About 85 species from Africa and the Middle East.
Grau (1971).
Source: (2002). Dahlia. In: . Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 4. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 3. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.