Imvubu Gerbera - history of the gerbera and gerbera jamesonii

Imvubu Gerbera - professional growers of mini and maxi gerbera and potplants in Nelspruit, Mpumalanga, South Africa

The genus gerbera Cass. corr. Spreng. was determined in 1737 by GRONOVIUS, a botanist from Leiden. Traugott GERBER, a doctor and botanist was the name-giver.

Today, this genus comprises about 45 durable herbaceous perennial plants. The plants are distributed over the warmer parts of southern Africa and Asia (eastern South Africa, Madagascar, Central and Southeast Asia as far as Nepal and China) with some distribution into Northern China and Siberia and sporadic appearances in Tasmania. Almost exclusively, these areas are areas with summer rainfalls with several dry months during winter; with only a few areas experiencing occasional cold temperatures.

The gerbera in horticulture is mainly derived from the Gerbera jamesonii. This plant was discovered by REHMANN in 1878 in the Transvaal and shortly thereafter in the region of the gold mines of the district of Barberton (east of the Drakensberg Mountains in the Transvaal) by the English merchant and plant collector, JAMESON.

Later on, BOLUS, a botanist, sent a large number of gerbera samples to the Botanical Gardens in Kew (near London) and suggested that this genus be named after JAMESON.

Harry Bolus (1834 - 1911)

The botanist, Joseph Dalton HOOKER (Jnr.) agreed to this and gave the plant the name, Gerbera jamesonii, and described it for the first time according to the requirements of the botanical nomenclature.

The determination of the name by J.D. HOOKER was already known by the botanists of the day even before it appeared in print. In the "Gardener's Chronicle" of 22 June 1889, a short anonymous note appeared (presumably written by BOLUS), announcing the description of a Gerbera jamesonii. A picture was printed alongside the note; the colour of the flower was mentioned as being a pale crême-orange.

A similarly worded anonymous note also appeared in "The Garden" in the issue dated 31 August 1889. The same magazine then published further information on 12 October 1889 (signed with the initials W.W.) and a colour print of the gerbera.

On 1 November 1889, at last, the announced complete botanical description of the Gerbera jamesonii, as named by J.D. HOOKER, was published in "Curtis's Botanical Magazine" together with the colour plate Nr. 7087, depicting a red gerbera.

J.D. HOOKER's illustrated sample was one that had been sent to Kew by the Botanical Garden in Natal by WOOD and flowered there in the early summer of 1889. HOOKER made a note to the effect that the colour of the flower in its natural habitat would have to be even brighter, as it had been characterised as being fiery in colour.