''Leucadendron cadens'', the Witteberg sunbush, is a flower-bearing shrub that belongs to the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

Leucadendron ''Leucadendron'' is a genus of about 80 species of flowering plants in the family Proteaceae, endemic to South Africa, where they are a prominent part of the fynbos ecoregion and vegetation type. Description Species in the genus ''Leucadendron' ...

'' and forms part of the fynbos. The plant is native to the

Western Cape The Western Cape is a province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , and the third most populous, with an estimated 7 million inhabitants in 2020 ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

. The plant is rare.

Description

The plant dies after a fire but the seeds survive. The seeds are stored in a toll on the female plant and only fall to the ground after the flower has ripened and are spread by rodents. The plant is

unisexual Dioecy (; ; adj. dioecious , ) is a characteristic of a species, meaning that it has distinct individual organisms (unisexual) that produce male or female gametes, either directly (in animals) or indirectly (in seed plants). Dioecious reproducti ...

and there are separate plants with male and female flowers, which are pollinated by the wind. In Afrikaans, it is known as .

Distribution and habitat

The plant occurs in the Witteberg Mountains south of

Matjiesfontein Matjiesfontein is a settlement in Central Karoo District Municipality in the Western Cape province of South Africa. History The original inhabitants of the region were the Khoikhoi herders and the San hunter gatherers. Following the arrival of ...

. The plant grows mainly on rotten quartzite ridges.

External links

* http://redlist.sanbi.org/species.php?species=794-15 * http://biodiversityexplorer.info/plants/proteaceae/leucadendron_cadens.htm * https://www.proteaatlas.org.za/coneid.htm

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q18079309 cadens Plants described in 1972