The open plant encyclopedia
Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.
The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.
Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.
Leucospermum oleifolium
Also called Overberg Pincushion, Calypso Red, Flame Pincushion, Hair Flower Leucadendrum, Mix, Mix Pincushion, Small Tufted Pincushion
Leucospermum oleifolium is a compact, rigid shrub of the Proteaceae family, native to the fynbos of the Western Cape, South Africa, and grown for its spectacular pincushion flowers that change from yellow to orange to crimson. Give it full sun, excellent drainage and little water once established.
Leucospermum oleifolium is an erect shrub of about 1 m (3.3 ft) high and 1½ m (5 ft) across that is assigned to the family Proteaceae. It has spreading branches, densely set with initially felty, entire, oval, olive-colored leaves of about 3½ cm (1½ in) long and 1½ cm (0.6 in) wide, with a bony tip that sometimes has two to five blunt teeth, with a blunt base and conspicuous veins. The flowers and their long thread-like styles are initially sulfur yellow, but soon become orange and finally turn brilliant crimson. The flower heads are about 4 cm (1.6 in) in diameter, crowded at the tip of the branches with a maximum of five that start flowering in turn. This provides for a colour spectacle from August till December. It is called by various names in South Africa such as Overberg pincushion, flame pincushion, mix pincushion and tuft pincushion.
Leucospermum oleifolium ranges from Rooiels in the south, via the Kogelberg Nature Reserve, Hottentots Holland Mountains, Franschhoek, Villiersdorp to the Haweqwa Nature Reserve, and an isolated population around Bainskloof Pass in the north, and eastwards along the Riviersonderend Mountains to Tyger Hoek. It can grown on very well-drained coastal rocks at only 50 m (150 ft) from the high tide line but also on cool peaty slopes at 900 m (3,000 ft) elevation. It is found in the winter rain zone in Fynbos on weathered Table Mountain Sandstone, but only where the local mean annual precipitation is at least 75 cm (30 in). L. oleifolium grows in a dense sclerophyll vegetations consisting mainly of other Proteaceae, Erica species and Restionaceae. In the south of its range, hundreds of individuals huddle together, but towards the north and east the plants become more isolated from each other. The flowers are self-sterile. When the shrubs are in flower, many Cape sugarbirds Promerops cafer and several species of sunbirds visit and pollinate the flowers.
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 oleifolium 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.
