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Leucospermum catherinae
Also called Catherine Wheel Pincushion, Wheel Flower, Catherine, Catherinewheel Pincushion, Comb Flower Pincushion, Wheel Flower Pincushion, Yellow Pinwheel
Catherine's Pincushion is a large evergreen shrub from the Western Cape of South Africa, growing up to 3 to 4 m with striking disc-shaped flower heads that look like whirling pincushions. It needs full sun, good drainage, and moist but not waterlogged conditions, and it is best suited to mild, Mediterranean-type climates.
Leucospermum catherinae is a large evergreen, upright shrub of up to 4 m (13 ft) high from the family Proteaceae. It has hairless, inverted lance-shaped 9–13 cm long and 1–2½ cm wide leaves with a distinct stalk and three or four deep and blunt teeth toward the tip. The flower heads become disc-shaped with age, about 15 cm (5.9 in) in diameter, consisting of pale orange flowers. From the center of each flower emerges a long initially orange, later coppery bronze style with a thickened magenta tip that is bent clockwise, giving the entire head the appearance of a whirling pincushion. It is called Catherine-wheel pincushion or wheel flower in English and waterluisie in Afrikaans. Flowers can be found between September and December. It is an endemic species limited to the southwest of the Western Cape province of South Africa.
L. catherinae can be found from the Middelberg in the Cedarberg mountains in the north, to the Kouebokkeveld Mountains and Ceres mountains in the south. Isolated populations occur at Bokkerivier and on the Piketberg Mountain. The species has a strong preference for moist situations, mostly growing on level sandy flats along the banks of year-round streams or in seepage areas with a gravelly underground of weathered table mountain sandstone. The locations where it grows have an elevation of 600–1,200 m (2,000–3,900 ft). Some plants grow on seemingly drier rocky slopes. The species usually grows solitary or with few individuals together.
Redelinghuys Pincushion · Gordon's Bay Pincushion · Arid Pincushion · Grey tree-pincushion · Heart Leaf Pincushion · Red pincushion-protea · Common Pincushion · Oudtshoorn Pincushion · Silver-leaf wheel pincushion · Potberg Pincushion · Soapstone Pincushion · Ember pincushion
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Leucospermum catherinae by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
