Mimetes cucullatus

Description

Mimetes cucullatus is an evergreen shrub with several, mostly not branching, upright stems of 1–2 m (3–7 ft) high, that has been assigned to the family Proteaceae. It is the most widespread and most common pagoda species that can cope with a relatively large range of environmental circumstances. It is known under several names including common pagoda in English and rooistompie in Afrikaans. Mimetes cucullatus is an evergreen, upright shrub of 1–2 m (3–7 ft) high, that has a firm woody tuber in the ground, from which several stems rise. These stems are upright, 3–8 mm (0.12–0.32 in) thick, mostly not branching but occasionally forking, initially covered in grey felty hair, but this tends to wear off with age. The leaves are alternately set along the stems, very narrow to broad elliptic or inverted egg-shaped, 2½–5½ cm (1–2¼ in) long and ½–2 cm (0.2–0.8 in) wide. Young growth is scarlet coloured, turning green lower down the stem. The leaves that subtend the flower heads are inverted fiddle-shaped in outline, folded backwards from the midline out, and during flowering are scarlet in the upper parts, gradually turning through yellowish to green at the base or entirely yellowish with a green base or softly orange. The inflorescence that consists of many flower heads in the axils of the highest leaves on the stem is cylindric in shape and 6–10 cm (2½–4 in) long and 4–7 cm (1⅔–2 in) in diameter, topped by a tuft of smallish, more or less upright, narrowly egg-shaped, scarlet coloured leaves. Each flower head contains four to seven flowers and is subtended by a leaf that is fiddle-shaped in outline and the side bent away from the stem as to cowl over the lower flower head. These leaves are mostly scarlet with some yellow and green at the very base or more rarely entirely yellow with the very base green, while intermediate soft orange forms also occur in the same populations. These leaves have an entire margin or have three teeth near their tips. The bracts that encircle the flower heads are unequal in size, clasp the base of the flowers tidily, fringed by a rim of silky hairs, and together form a two-lipped involucre. The bracts below the attachment of the flowers are ellipse-shaped with a pointy tip, larger, 1½–3 cm (0.6–1.2 in) long and 3–12 mm (0.12–0.48 in) wide. The bract above the attachment of the flower heads are smaller, lance-shaped with a pointy tip, 8–10 mm (0.32–0.40 in) long and 1½–3 mm (0.06–0.12 in) wide.