''Lobostemon capitatus'' is a species belonging to the forget-me-not family. It 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 ...

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 ...

of South Africa, where it is found between Porterville and

Bredasdorp Bredasdorp is a town in the Southern Overberg region of the Western Cape, South Africa, and the main economic and service hub of that region. It lies on the northern edge of the Agulhas Plain, about south-east of Cape Town and north of Cape Agul ...

Description

''Lobostemon capitatus'' is a

shrub A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees ...

that grows tall, sometimes reaching a height of up to .BODATSA: Botanical Collections. v1.4. South African National Biodiversity Institute. Dataset/Occurrence. http://ipt.sanbi.org.za/iptsanbi/resource?r=brahms_online&v=1.4 The branches are more or less equally spaced and the herbaceous branches are hairy. The leaves are slender, tapering to a point. The undersides of the leaves are covered in hairs. The upper face is hairless or has only a few sparse hairs. The flowers are cream with purple markings. They are small, reaching a length of about .They grow as a capitate cyme, meaning that large number of sessile flowers grow from a suppressed rachis. The flower buds arranged in two distinct parallel rows and don't spreading much in fruiting stage. The stamens protrude past the petals in adult flowers. They are typically all of similar length, although one may be shorter than the others. The staminal scales are well developed. They are triangular with lateral lobes. They occur at the throat of the corolla tube, above the base. The area between them is hairy.

Distribution and habitat

This species is endemic to the Western Cape of South Africa, where it is found between Porterville and Bredasdorp where it occurs 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 ...

slopes and flats. It primarily occurs in Renosterveld in the northern parts of its distribution and in Elim Ferricrete Fynbos towards the south east. It is known from fifteen fragmented subpopulations.Buys, M.H., Helme, N.A. & Raimondo, D. 2006
Lobostemon capitatus (L.) H.Buek
National Assessment: Red List of South African Plants version 2020.1. Accessed on 2021/08/11

Conservation

The South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) has classified ''Lobostemon capitatus'' as vulnerable. The small populations continue to decline, largely due to agriculture and urban development, especially in the Durbanville area.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15590446 Boraginaceae Endemic flora of the Cape Provinces Plants described in 1837