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Mimetes argenteus
Also called Silver Leaved Bottlebrush, Silver Mimetes, Silver Leaf Bottlebrush, Silvery Mimetes
Mimetes argenteus is an evergreen, upright, hardly branching, large shrub of about 2 m (6½ ft) high in the family Proteaceae. It has elliptic, silvery leaves, due to a dense covering of silky hairs, that stand out a right angle from the branches. It has cylindric inflorescences of 8–15 cm (3–6 in) long and 10–12 cm (4–5 in) in diameter, crested by smaller silvery pink leaves at an upright angle. These consist of many flower heads, each containing six to nine individual flowers and ar set in the axil of a leaf flushed mauve to carmine. It flowers from March to June. The silver pagoda naturally occurs in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is called silver pagoda or silver-leaved bottlebrush in English and vaalstompie in Afrikaans.
The silver pagoda can be found between the proximity of Sir Lowry's Pass in the west, along the cool, south-facing slopes of the southern mountains, particularly the Hottentots Holland and Riviersonderend Mountains, and Appelskraal in the east. It grows in a vegetation type called sandstone fynbos, at an altitude of 600–1000 m (1950–3250 ft), rarely up to 1500 m (4900 ft), within which it prefers seepage zones on well-drained peaty soil. The flowers are pollinated by birds. After 2–6 months, the fruits are ripe and fall to the ground. Here these are collected by native ants, that take them to their underground nests. After the ants have eaten a sweet, whitish covering of the seed called elaiosome, the seed remains safely underground, protected from fire and predation by birds and rodents. This species does not survive fire, but returns from seed.
Kogelberg Silver Bottlebrush · Conical Pagoda · Golden pagoda · Common Pagoda · Fringed Bottlebrush · Marsh pagoda · Matchstick Pagoda · Cryptic Pagoda · Threeflower pagoda · Limestone Pagoda · Splendid Pagoda · Mace Pagoda
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Mimetes argenteus 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.
