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Leucospermum royenifolium
Also called Royena Leaf Leucadendrum
Eastern pincushion is a low, spreading evergreen shrub from the Protea family, grown for its globe-shaped, sweetly scented flower heads. Its key to growing is excellent drainage and a hot, dry, sunny position, as it comes from a demanding, arid South African habitat.
Leucospermum royenifolium is an evergreen, spreading or somewhat upturning shrub of up to 0.5 m (1.7 ft) high and 1–3 m (3–10 ft) in diameter from the family Proteaceae. It has patent elliptic, eventually hairless leaves. The flower heads are globe-shaped, 1–2 cm (0.4–0.8 in) in diameter, and contain initially whitish, later pinkish, sweetly scented flowers. From the center of the flowers emerge almost straight styles that jointly give the impression of a pincushion. It is called eastern pincushion in English. It can be found flowering between July and December. It occurs in the Western Cape and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa.
L. royenifolium occurs along the length of the Langkloof on the northern edge of the Outeniqua Mountains, eastwards to Misgund. It is also known from the Swartberg between Meiringspoort in the west to Kouga Local Municipality and the Baviaanskloof Mountains all the way to Scholtzberg. It grows exclusively on north facing slopes consisting of Witteberg Quartzite or Table Mountain Sandstone, at an altitude of 600–1250 m (2000–4000 ft), in a vegetation type called arid fynbos or sometimes in renosterveld. Compared to most other Leucospermum species, the eastern pincushion grows under climatically demanding circumstances, receiving an average annual precipitation of 250–375 mm (10–15 in), almost evenly distributed over the year except for a small peak during winter, with occasional frosts during winter and very hot in summer.
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 royenifolium 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.
