''Lobostemon argenteus'', or the silver healthbush, blue rocket bugloss or disselblaarluibos, is a species in the forget-me-not family that is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

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

Description

This shrublet grows up to in height, although more typically it will be tall.Manning, John; Goldblatt, Peter (2012).
Plants of the Greater Cape Floristic Region : 1: the core Cape flora
': South African National Biodiversity Institute, SANBI. . . The stalkless leaves are lance shaped and possess long and short hairs. The bright blue, funnel shaped flowers grow in a spike-like inflorescence, with a single flower growing from each bract. This feature can be used to differentiate this from the similar '' Lobostemon stachydeus'', which has two flowers per bract. The five petals of each flower are hairless on the outside. The five stamens are shortly fused with the petals. The staminal scales occur well below the entrance of the corolla tube, and are reduced to ridges. They lack lateral lobes. Flowers are present between July and February, with peak flowering occurring from August to November. The inflorescences are cymous, meaning that the flowers mature from to bottom. Flowering specimens have been collected as late as April in the Caledon region.

Distribution and habitat

This species exhibits a disjunct distribution, occurring in three distinct regions, suggesting it may have been more widespread in the past. It has a relatively wide distribution, occurring between Clanwilliam and Makhanda. Recent resampling, however, has failed to find specimens in the areas around Kamiesberg or outside of Makhanda. It is found on

shale Shale is a fine-grained, clastic sedimentary rock formed from mud that is a mix of flakes of clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4) and tiny fragments (silt-sized particles) of other minerals, especial ...

and

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

slopes. Typically it prefers drier slopes.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15592914 Endemic flora of the Cape Provinces Boraginaceae