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King Spiderhead

Serruria williamsii

King Spiderhead
Photo: Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0

King spiderhead is a fynbos shrub from a few mountains in the Western Cape of South Africa, valued for its large, unusual flowerheads. It is a demanding plant that needs a dry, well-drained, sunny site and is rarely grown outside its native range.

Family
Proteaceae (Protea family)
Grows as
Shrub
Light
Full sun
Water
Water sparingly and let the soil dry out between waterings; it is adapted to a winter-rainfall climate and dislikes wet feet.
Soil
Acidic, sandy or gritty, very well-drained soil low in phosphorus, as for other Proteaceae of fynbos.
Temperature
Mild to warm, around 10–30 °C; protect from frost.
How easy
Hard
Native range
SW. Cape Prov.
Climate
subtropical

About

Serruria williamsii, commonly known as the king spiderhead, is a flower-bearing shrub that belongs to the genus Serruria and forms part of the fynbos. The plant is native to the Western Cape and only occurs in the Riviersonderend Mountains.

In Afrikaans it is known as koningsspinnekopbos.

Other Serruria plants

Common Rootstock Spiderhead · Kleinmond Spiderhead · Strawberry Spiderhead · Marshmallow Spiderhead · Stately Spiderhead · Acorn Spiderhead · Agulhas Spiderhead · Bottlebrush Spiderhead · Shiny Spiderhead · Lost Spiderhead · Wavy Spiderhead · Wynberg Spiderhead

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Serruria williamsii 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.

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