Trident pincushion

Description

Leucospermum heterophyllum is a low, trailing evergreen shrublet of up to 15 cm (6 in) high, and up to several m in diameter, which is assigned to the family Proteaceae. It has narrow leaves of about 2½ cm (1 in) long and ½ cm (0.2 in) wide, mostly with three teeth near its tip. It has small, globe-shaped, whitish flower heads. It is called trident pincushion in English and rankluisie in Afrikaans. It naturally occurs in the Western Cape province of South Africa. The plant flowers between August and January. L. heterophyllum is an evergreen, low shrublet of 10–15 cm (4–6 in) high, which spreads into a dense mat of 1–6 m (3–18 ft) in diameter from a stout rootstock of 5–10 cm (2–4 in) thick and the basal stems also sturdy and up to 5 cm thick. Long branches are radiating out, trailing along the ground, and mostly bear flower heads on slender, short shoots to the sides of 1–2 mm (0.04–0.08 in) thick. The leaves are narrow, line-shaped and fanning out slightly or lance-shaped with the largest width towards the tip, 2–3 cm (0.8–1.2 in) long and 3–6 mm (0.12–0.24 in) wide, the tip mostly broad with three teeth with bony tips, usually shortly felty hairy but later losing the hairs, without a stalk, twisted at base and more or less oriented upwards. The flower heads are globe-shaped, 2–3 cm (0.8–1.2 in) in diameter and set on a stalk of 1–2 cm (0.4–0.8 in) long. The common base of the flowers in the same head is low egg-shaped, 2–3 mm (0.08–0.12 in) across, and subtended by an involucre consisting of overlapping cartilaginous, softly hairy oval bracts of 3–4 mm (0.12–0.16 in) long and 1–2 mm (0.04–0.08 in) wide with a recurved, pointy tip with a sparse tuft of long stiff hairs. The bracts subtending the individual flower are woolly on the outside, broadly oval in shape abour 3 mm long and 2 mm wide, with a pointy tip. The 4-merous perianth is about 1½ cm (0.6 in) long.