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Sorocephalus tenuifolius
Also called Diminutive Powderpuff, Fine Leaf Soranthe
Sorocephalus tenuifolius is a small fynbos shrub in the Protea family, growing to about 1 m, native to the Western Cape (Palmiet River valley, Kogelberg), and once thought extinct. It is a fire-adapted plant that is hard to cultivate outside its native habitat.
Sorocephalus tenuifolius, the diminutive clusterhead, is a flowering shrub that belongs to the genus Sorocephalus and forms part of the fynbos. The plant is endemic to the Western Cape where it occurs in the Palmiet River valley in the Kogelberg. The plant was considered extinct in 1987 but a new population was discovered.
The shrub grows only 1 m high and flowers from January to February. Fire destroys the plant but the seeds survive. The plant is bisexual and pollination takes place through the action of insects. Two months after the plant has flowered, the fruit ripens and the seeds fall to the ground where they are spread by ants. The plant grows in moist, sandy soil at elevations of 400 m.
Woolly Stalk Clusterhead · Woolly Clusterhead · Club Bearing Soranthe · Flowerless Clusterhead · Tile Leaf Clusterhead · Common Clusterhead · Mat Clusterhead · Long Leaf Clusterhead · Tulbagh Clusterhead · Pinhead Clusterhead · Powderpuffs
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Sorocephalus tenuifolius 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.
