Gerbera L., is a genus of ornamental plants from the sunflower family known as Asteraceae. It is named in honor of the German naturalist Traugott Gerber.
It has approximately 30 species in the wild, extending to countries like South America, Africa, Madagascar, and tropical Asia. The first description of a Gerbera was made by botanist J.D. Hooker in Curtis Botanical Magazine in 1889 where he described Gerbera jamesonii, a South African species also known as Transvaal daisy or Barberton Daisy.
Gerbera species bear a large capitulum with striking, 2-lipped ray florets in colors of yellow, orange, white, pink or red colors. The capitulum, which has the initial appearance of a single flower, is actually composed of hundreds of individual flowers. The morphology of the flowers differs depending on their position in the capitulum.
Gerbera is very popular used as a decorative garden plant or as cut flowers. The domesticated cultivars are mostly a result of a cross between Gerbera jamesonii and the South African species of Gerbera viridifolia. This cross is known as Gerbera hybrida. Thousands of cultivars of the flower exist. They vary largely in shape and size. Different colors include white, yellow, orange, red, and pink. The center of the flower is black sometimes. Often the same flower can have petals of various different colors.
The Gerbera is commercially important. It is also the fifth most used cut flower in the world after rose, carnation, chrysanthemum, and tulip. It is also used as a model organism in studying formation of flowers. Gerbera consists of naturally occurring coumarin derivatives.