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Leucospermum hypophyllocarpodendron
Also called Snakestem Pincushion, Green Snake Stem Pincushion, Hypophyllous Leucadendrum
Leucospermum hypophyllocarpodendron is a creeping, mat-forming shrub with heads of yellow flowers and leathery, upright narrow leaves with some red-tipped teeth at their tips, from the family Proteaceae. It has long thin branches that originate from an underground rootstock and grows on poor, sandy soils in southwestern South Africa. The rose-scented flower heads can be found for August to January and are visited by different monkey beetles, bees and flies. It has two subspecies, one with greyish leaves U-shaped in cross section called grey snakestem pincushion in English and gruisslangbossie in Afrikaans, the other with green leaves that are flat in cross-section called green snakestem pincushion and groenslangbossie.
Leucospermum hypophyllocarpodendron subsp. hypophyllocarpodendron can be found in three isolated areas, that were probably at one time connected when the sea-level was lower than today. The first area is along the coast between Brandfontein (near Cape Agulhas) and Franskraalstrand. Another area where the subspecies grows is near Faure, Stellenbosch and around the Berg River Dam. Lastly, it occurs on the southern half of the Cape Peninsula. It also used to occur on the flat lands between Retreat and Cape Town, but is now extinct because of the city's expansion. The plants live in fynbos and strandveld on sandy flats below 150 m (500 ft) elevation, but sometimes grow on weathered Table Mountain Sandstone up to 300 m (1000 ft). Adult plants almost always survive the wildfires that occur every decade or two because they grow new branches from the woody underground rootstock.
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
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Leucospermum hypophyllocarpodendron by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.
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.
