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Cliffortia
Also called Cliffies, Cliffortias, Ricebushes
Cliffortia, or Caperose is a genus of plants that has been assigned to the rose family, with currently 132 known species. Its species can be found in southern Africa, particularly in the Cape Floristic Region (CFR) where 124 of the species can be found, 109 of which are endemic to the CFR. Most species are ericoid shrubs, some small trees up to 5 m (161⁄2 ft) high, others more or less herbaceous groundcover. All are wind pollinated and have separate male and female flowers in the axils of the leaves, mostly individually, sometimes grouped, which may be on the same plant or on separate plants.
Cliffortia species differ in their tolerance for fire, and roughly three strategies may be distinguished. A large proportion of the species resprouts from the underground rootstock. Many other species have seeds that are collected by ants and survive in their underground nests. Fewer species survive the less intense fires by regrowing from the crown of the plant, but those species grow in locations that do not sustain intense fires, such as isolated from the surrounding vegetation by bare rock (C. neglecta, C. tuberculata, C. complanata and C. propinqua), wet areas (C. aculeata, C. graminea, C. nivenioides and C. strobilifera), or montane grasslands (C. linearifolia, C. nitidula subsp. pilosa, C. repens and C. spathulata).
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Cliffortia by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.
