About

Leucospermum, commonly known as pincushions, is a genus of evergreen upright, sometimes creeping shrubs that is assigned to the Proteaceae, with currently 48 known species.

The shrubs mostly have a single stem at their base, but some species sprout from an underground rootstock, from which the plant can regrow after fire has killed the above ground biomass. In a larger group of species, specimens are killed by fire, and their survival depends on the seeds. In all species, seeds are collected by ants, which take them to their underground nests to feed on their ant breads, a seed dispersal strategy known as myrmecochory. This ensures that the seeds do not burn, so new plants can grow from them.

How to grow it

The breeding of pincushions provides an important export product in South Africa and a few other countries. L. conocarpodendron, L. cordifolia, L. lineare, L. patersonii and L. vestitum and a range of hybrids supply cut flowers.

Where it grows

Pincushions can only be found in a narrow zone from the southwestern Cape, along the Great Escarpment to eastern Transvaal and Eswatini, and two isolated areas, one in the Chimanimani Mountain range on the Zimbabwe-Mozambique border, and the other in Namaqualand. Only L. gerrardii, L. innovans and L. saxosum occur outside the Cape Floristic District. A remarkable concentration of 30% of the species occurs in a narrow strip of about 200 km (120 mi) long on the south coast between Hermanus and Witsand. Most of the individual species have restricted distributions, some as small as a few square km.

Other Leucospermum plants

Redelinghuys Pincushion · Gordon's Bay Pincushion · Arid Pincushion · Catherine's Pincushion · Grey tree-pincushion · Heart Leaf Pincushion · Red pincushion-protea · Common Pincushion · Oudtshoorn Pincushion · Silver-leaf wheel pincushion · Potberg Pincushion · Soapstone Pincushion