''Leucadendron chamelaea'', the Witsenberg conebush, 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 ...

Description

The shrub grows tall and bears flowers in September. Two months after the plant has flowered, the fruit appears and the seeds later fall to the ground. Fire destroys the plant but the seeds survive. 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 ...

, there are male and female plants. Insects do the pollination and agriculture threatens the survival of the plant. In Afrikaans, it is known as the .

Distribution and habitat

The plant occurs from the Kouebokkeveld Mountains to the Franschhoek Valley. It grows in sandstone sand at heights of .

Gallery

Leucadendron chamelaea 1DS-II 3-5210.jpg File:Leucadendron chamelaea 15439599.jpg File:Leucadendron chamelaea 53676214.jpg File:Leucadendron chamelaea 54240797.jpg

References

*http://redlist.sanbi.org/species.php?species=794-16 *http://pza.sanbi.org/leucadendron-chamelaea *https://www.proteaatlas.org.za/conebu6.htm *http://biodiversityexplorer.info/plants/proteaceae/leucadendron_chamelaea.htm {{Taxonbar, from= Q15584534 chamelaea