Angiosperms (Flowering Plants) • Earth.com

Outeniqua pincushion

(Leucospermum glabrum)

galery
en

Description

Leucospermum glabrum is an evergreen, rounded, upright shrub of up to 2½ m (8 ft) high, that is assigned to the family Proteaceae. It has broad inverted egg-shaped leaves with seven to fourteen teeth near their tips, and oval flower heads of about 8 cm (3.2 in) in diameter, with hairy, orange and carmine-coloured flowers from which long styles with a thickened end emerge, giving the flowerhead as a whole the appearance of a pincushion. It flowers between August and October. Its common name is Outeniqua pincushion in English and Outeniekwa-kreupelhout in Afrikaans. It naturally occurs in a limited area on the south coast of South Africa. L. glabrum is an upright, rounded shrub of up to 2½ m (8 ft) high, with a central stem at its foot of up to 10 cm (4 in) in diameter, with a reddish brown bark. Its flowering stems are woody and upright, ½–1 cm (0.2–0.4 in) in diameter, initially withsoft but clearly separated hairs which are soon lost. The leaves with a very short stalk, are slightly rising up, inverted egg-shaped to broadly so, wedge-shaped at its base, 8–12 cm (3.2–4.8 in) long and 3–5 cm (1.2–2.0 in) broad, hairless and bright green in colour, with seven to fourteen teeth near the tip. The flower heads are oval in shape, 7–9 cm (2.8–3.6 in) in diameter, subsessile, usually on its own but sometimes grouped with two or three. The common base of the flowers in the same head is cone-shaped, about 4½ cm (1.8 in) long, and 1¼ cm (0.9 in) wide. The bracts subtending the common base are oval with a curved pointy tip, about 9 mm (0.35 in) long and 6 mm (0.24 in) wide, overlapping and tidily pressed against the surface, rubbery in consistency and softly hairy.

Taxonomic tree:

Domain:
Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum:
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order:Proteales
Family:Proteaceae
Genus:Leucospermum
News coming your way
The biggest news about our planet delivered to you each day