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Leucospermum patersonii
Also called Paterson's Pincushion, Silver Edge Pincushion, Vals Kreupelhout, Bastard Pincushion, Carnival Coast, Silver Edged Pincushion, Silveredge Pincushion
Leucospermum patersonii is a large evergreen shrub, sometimes a small tree, native only to the south coast of the Western Cape in South Africa. It is grown for its orange pincushion flower heads, and the key to success is good drainage and full sun.
Leucospermum patersonii is a large evergreen, upright shrub of up to 4 m (13 ft) high that is assigned to the family Proteaceae. It has large, roundish hairless leaves with three to eight teeths and egg- to globe-shaped, orange flower heads of 8–9 cm (3.1–3.5 in) across. From the center of each flower emerges a long orange style with a thickened tip that is bent to the center of the head, giving the entire head the appearance of a pincushion. It is called silveredge pincushion in English. Flowers can be found between August and December. It is an endemic species limited to the south coast of the Western Cape province of South Africa.
The upright habit and large conspicuous flower heads make L. patersonii attractive as a cut flower and ornamental species. Because it is adapted to lime, it is used to make hybrids that can grow on a range of soil types. Several such hybrids have been developed by crossing L. patersonii with L. conocarpodendron, which is itself intolerant of lime.
L. patersonii can be found between Cape Agulhas in the east along the coast to Stanford, with an outlying population at Heuningklip Kloof, near Kleinmond. It also used to occur near Hermanus but went extinct there. The silveredge pincushion is a species of the coast that is almost restricted to limestone ridges next to the sea between 50 and 250 m (160 and 820 ft) altitudes. Except for the population at Heuningklip Kloof, the species grows on limestone of the Alexandria Formation. In roots mostly penetrating the system soft layers of limestone closer to the surface. The silveredge pincushion usually grows in fairly dense stands in a vegetation that also contains other Proteaceae with a preference for limestone, including Mimetes saxatilis, Protea obtusifolia and Leucadendron meridianum. Mature plants are able to regenerate from the tips of the branches, if the wildfires that periodically occur in the fynbos are not too hot.
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 patersonii 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.
