Leucospermum rodolentum

Leucospermum rodolentum is an upright, evergreen shrub of up to 3.0 m high, from the family Proteaceae. It has felty grey, elliptic to wedge-shaped leaves of 4–6½ cm (1.8–2.6 in) long and ¾–1½ cm wide, and very sweetly scented, globe-shaped, 3–3½ cm (1.2–1.4 in) wide, bright yellow flower heads, that are seated or on a very short stalk of ½ cm long, grouped with two to four together. Its common names include is sandveld pincushion in English and sandluisie or sandveldluisiesbos in Afrikaans. The plants are in bloom between August and November. It is an endemic species that only grows in a small area of the Western Cape province of South-Africa.

Wikipedia-Autoren · CC BY-SA · Quelle

Leucospermum rodolentum is an upright spreading shrub of up to 3 m (10 ft) high and 4 m (13½ ft) in diameter, that develops from a single trunk at its base of 8–14 cm (3¼–4¾ in) thick, with a smooth, grey bark. The flowering stems are rising up 5–7 mm in diameter and grey due to a dense layer of grey fine crisped hairs. The leaves are elliptic to wedge-shaped, 4–6½ cm (1.8–2.6 in) long and ¾–1½ cm (0.3-0.6 in) wide, with a blunt or tapering base, a rounded or bitten-off tip with three to six teeth, and a grey surface due to a dense layer of fine, short, crisped hairs. The flower heads are globe-shaped, 3–3½ cm (1.2–1.4 in) across, seated or with a short stalk of up to ½ cm (0.2 in) long, occurring in groups of two, three or four, rarely individually. The common base of the flowers in the same head is flattened cone-shaped, about 1 cm (0.4 in) long and ¾ cm (0.3 in) across. The greyish bracts that subtend the head are oval with a pointy tip, 5−7 mm (0.20–0.28 in) long and 2–3 mm (0.08–0.12 in) wide, tightly overlapping, cartilaginous in consistency. The carmine bract that subtends each flower individually is narrowly lance-shaped with a pointy tip, about 2 cm (0.8 in) long and 2 mm (0.08 in) wide, embraces the base of the perianth, is thickly woolly at its foot, powdery hairy near the tip, and is fringed by equally long hairs. The straight, deep yellow, 4-merous perianth is straight and cylinder-shaped in bud, and 1½–2½ cm (0.6–1.0 in) long. The lowest, fully merged, part of the perianth, called tube is cylinder-shaped, about 5 mm long, hairless, and hyaline in consistency. The middle part (or claws), where the perianth is split lengthwise is curled back in the upper half. While the claw facing the edge of the head is thinly silky hairy, the remaining three claws quickly loose any hair that might be there in the bud. The upper part (or limbs), which enclosed the pollen presenter in the bud, consists of four lance-shaped with a pointy tip, are still tinged with green in bud, are about 3 mm (0.12 in) long and 1 mm (0.04 in) wide, and carries very few silky hairs. From the perianth emerges a straight style of 1½–2½ cm (0.6–1.0 in), that tapers near the tip, sometimes curves slightly away from the center of the head. The thickened part at the tip of the style called pollen presenter is hoof-shaped to bluntly cylinder-shaped, about 2 mm (0.08 in) long, with a groove that functions as the stigma across the very tip. The ovary is subtended by four opaque, awl-shaped scales of about 1 mm long. Differences with related species L. rodolentum can be distinguished from other species by its tall, up to 3.0 m high, upright habit and its grey felty elliptic to wedge-shaped leaves of ¾–1½ cm wide. It can be distinguished from L. parile, which has red pointed bracts.