Wart-stemmed pincushion

Description

Leucospermum cuneiforme is an upright evergreen shrub with many pustules growing on the lower branches, wedge-shaped leaves, and oval, initially yellow flower heads that later turn orange, with long styles sticking far beyond the perianths, jointly giving the impression of a pincushion. It is called wart-stemmed pincushion in English and luisiesbos (lice-bush) in Afrikaans. The species is common in the southern mountains of South Africa. Leucospermum cuneiforme is an upright, evergreen shrub, often of only ½–1 m (1½–3 ft) high, that has branches that originate from a woody rootstock in the ground, and if protected against fire will develop a main stem and grows up to 3 m (9.8 ft) high. The stem and lower branches are covered in pustules, a unique feature for this species. The upright flowering branches are 3–7 mm (0.12–0.28 in) in diameter and appear to be grey due to soft, crinkly hairs. The leaves are hairless, narrow to broadly wedge-shaped 4½–11 cm (1.8–4.4 in) long and 0.6–3 cm (0.24–1.18 in) wide, with three to ten teeth with bony tips near the far end of the leaf. The flower heads sitting usually solitary or grouped with two or three near the end of the branches, are egg-shaped, 5–9 cm (2.0–3.5 in) in diameter each on a stalk of up to 1½ cm (0.6 in) long. The common base of the flowers within the same head is cylindric with a blunt tip, 2½–4½ cm (1.0–1.8 in) long and 6 mm (0.24 in) wide. The bracts that subtend the flower head are broadly oval with a pointy tip, about 0.8–1.0 cm (0.31–0.39 in) long and 6 mm (0.24 in) wide, closely overlapping, rubbery in consistency, grey due to the dense soft hair. The bracts that subtend the individual flower are oval with a pointy tip, 1.0–1.2 cm (0.39–0.47 in) long and about 7 mm (0.28 in) wide, rubbery in consistency, embracing the foot of the perianth, densely woolly at the base, less dense nearer the tip and with a dense row of hairs around the fringes.