It mostly grows to about 50 cm (1.6 ft) high, rarely to 1 m. The leaves are oppositely arranged along the stems, dark green in colour and elliptic in shape.

They are elliptic to inverted egg-shaped, with a blunt or indistinctly pointy tip, an entire margin, and the leaves near the ground may have a short stalk.

In the center of each corolla are five anthers merged into a tube, through which the style grows when the floret opens, hoovering up the pollen on its shaft.

Around the base of the corolla are many white, toothed, persistent pappus bristles of about 4 mm (0.16 in) long, which become slightly wider towards the top.

[2] The blue daisy can be distinguished from other Felicia species by the fact that all its leaves are opposite, with an entire margin, the plants have a very regular branching, and the involucral bracts are very long.

[2] The blue daisy was first described by Carl Linnaeus in the second edition of his Species Plantarum, published in 1763, and he named it Cineraria amelloides.

Finally, Linnaeus’ specimen was moved by Andreas Voss, who so created Felicia amelloides, the currently recognised name.

It extends furthest inland in the Eastern Cape at the Vanstadensberg near Port Elizabeth, the Groot Winterhoek Mountains near Uitenhage, and the Ecca Pass, on the road between Grahamstown and Fort Beaufort.

The species does not occur on the Cape Peninsula, where it has been confused with Felicia aethiopica, with similar flower heads but alternately set leaves above the base.

The blue daisy is most common on old stabilizing sand dunes, or where shelter is provided, but also occurs on sandy flats, gravelly slopes, stony hillsides, rock slabs and Table Mountain Sandstone outcrops, at 0–1,000 m (0–3,281 ft) altitude.