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Leucospermum rodolentum
Also called Pincushion, Sandveld Pincushion, Rose Scented Leucadendrum, Rose Scented Pincushion
Leucospermum rodolentum is an upright, evergreen shrub up to about 3 m tall, native to the sandy flats of the Western Cape, South Africa, and only rarely grown outside its range. It is grown for its sweetly scented, bright yellow pincushion flowers, and it needs sandy, free-draining soil and full sun.
Leucospermum rodolentum is an upright, evergreen shrub of up to 3.0 m high, from the family Proteaceae. It has felty grey, elliptic to wedge-shaped leaves of 4–6½ cm (1.8–2.6 in) long and ¾–1½ cm wide, and very sweetly scented, globe-shaped, 3–3½ cm (1.2–1.4 in) wide, bright yellow flower heads, that are seated or on a very short stalk of ½ cm long, grouped with two to four together. Its common names include is sandveld pincushion in English and sandluisie or sandveldluisiesbos in Afrikaans. The plants are in bloom between August and November. It is an endemic species that only grows in a small area of the Western Cape province of South-Africa.
The sandveld pincushion can naturally be found from Darling in the south, through the Hopefield, Piketberg, and Clanwilliam districts, to the Heerenlogementberg and the Nardouw Pass. An isolated population can be found south of the Brandvlei Dam. Isolated populations near Kraaifontein (1960s) and Salt River (19th century), now a Cape Town suburb, have gone extinct due to urban expansion. The species is a prominent constituent of sandveld vegetation that grows on the sandy flats of the west of the Western Cape province, between sealevel and 250 m (800 ft) or rarely 300 m (1000 ft) altitude, often together with Leucadendron pubescens and several large, tufted Restionaceae, such as Willdenowia. It occurs only in loose, very often stabilised Tertiary or Quaternary drift sands. The average annual precipitation in this area is 380–500 mm (15–20 in), mainly falling during the winter half year.
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 rodolentum 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.
