Mimetes pauciflorus is a species of evergreen shrub in the Protea family, native to moist south-facing slopes of the southern Cape in South Africa, where it can reach 2 to 4 m. Its key to growing it is cool, moist, well-drained conditions, as it is adapted to fynbos slopes that stay damp year-round.
Family
Proteaceae (Protea family)
Grows as
Shrub
Light
Full sun, Part shade
Water
Water regularly during dry spells and avoid waterlogging, keeping the root zone moist but well drained.
Soil
Acidic, sandy, well-drained fynbos-type soil with low phosphate.
Temperature
Cool to mild, roughly 5-25 °C; protect from frost and sustained heat.
How easy
Hard
Native range
S. Cape Prov.
Climate
subtropical
About
Mimetes pauciflorus, the three-flowered pagoda, is an evergreen, shyly branching, upright shrub of 2–4 (6½–13 ft) high, from the family Proteaceae. It has narrowly to broadly oval leaves of 2½–4 cm (1.0–1.6 in) long and ¾–2 cm (0.3–0.8 in) wide, on the upper parts of the branches, the lower parts leafless with a reddish brown bark. The inflorescences at the top of the shoots are cylinder-shaped, 10–40 cm (4–16 in) long and contain forty to one hundred twenty densely crowded flower heads, at a steep upward angle, hiding a crest of very small, almost vertical leaves. The flower heads each consist of three, rarely four individual flowers. The flowers are tightly enclosed by four or five orange-yellow, fleshy, pointy, lance-shaped involucral bracts, and three orange-yellow, 4–5½ cm (1.6–2.4 in) long bracteoles.
Where it grows
Mimetes pauciflorus has a relatively large distribution. It can be found in an at most 8 km (5.0 mi) wide strip along the south-facing slopes of the coastal mountains along the south coast, between the Ruitersberg, north of Mossel Bay in the Western Cape to slightly beyond Formosa Peak in the Eastern Cape.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Mimetes pauciflorus 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.