''Leucospermum glabrum'' is an

evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has foliage that remains green and functional through more than one growing season. This also pertains to plants that retain their foliage only in warm climates, and contrasts with deciduous plants, which ...

, rounded, upright shrub of up to 2½ m (8 ft) high, that is assigned to the family

Proteaceae The Proteaceae form a family of flowering plants predominantly distributed in the Southern Hemisphere. The family comprises 83 genera with about 1,660 known species. Together with the Platanaceae and Nelumbonaceae, they make up the order Pro ...

. It has broad inverted egg-shaped leaves with seven to fourteen teeth near their tips, and oval flower heads of about 8 cm (3.2 in) in diameter, with hairy, orange and carmine-coloured flowers from which long styles with a thickened end emerge, giving the flowerhead as a whole the appearance of a pincushion. It flowers between August and October. Its common name is Outeniqua pincushion in English and Outeniekwa-kreupelhout in

Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...

. It naturally occurs in a limited area on the south coast of South Africa.

Description

''L. glabrum'' is an upright, rounded shrub of up to 2½ m (8 ft) high, with a central stem at its foot of up to 10 cm (4 in) in diameter, with a reddish brown bark. Its flowering stems are woody and upright, ½–1 cm (0.2–0.4 in) in diameter, initially withsoft but clearly separated hairs which are soon lost. The leaves with a very short stalk, are slightly rising up, inverted egg-shaped to broadly so, wedge-shaped at its base, 8–12 cm (3.2–4.8 in) long and 3–5 cm (1.2–2.0 in) broad, hairless and bright green in colour, with seven to fourteen teeth near the tip. The flower heads are oval in shape, 7–9 cm (2.8–3.6 in) in diameter, subsessile, usually on its own but sometimes grouped with two or three. The

common base In electronics, a common-base (also known as grounded-base) amplifier is one of three basic single-stage bipolar junction transistor (BJT) amplifier topologies, typically used as a current buffer or voltage amplifier. In this circuit the emitte ...

of the flowers in the same head is cone-shaped, about 4½ cm (1.8 in) long, and 1¼ cm (0.9 in) wide. The

bracts In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, or of ...

subtending the common base are oval with a curved pointy tip, about 9 mm (0.35 in) long and 6 mm (0.24 in) wide, overlapping and tidily pressed against the surface, rubbery in consistency and softly hairy. The

subtending each individually flower, envelops it at its base, is about 1½ cm (0.6 in) long and 1 cm (0.4 in) wide, with a strongly recurved pointed tip ending in a short thread, and the margins with a regular row of equal hairs, the outside deep carmine in colour in life, rubbery in consistency, densely woolly at base and softly hairy towards the tip. The

perianth The perianth (perigonium, perigon or perigone in monocots) is the non-reproductive part of the flower, and structure that forms an envelope surrounding the sexual organs, consisting of the calyx (sepals) and the corolla (petals) or tepals when ...

is about 3½ cm (1.4 in) long, carmine to bright orange in colour. The lower part with the lobes fused (called tube) is about 1 cm (0.4 in) long and lacks hair. The middle part where at least one of the lobes becomes free when the flower opens (called

claws A claw is a curved, pointed appendage found at the end of a toe or finger in most amniotes (mammals, reptiles, birds). Some invertebrates such as beetles and spiders have somewhat similar fine, hooked structures at the end of the leg or tarsus ...

), is bright crimson inside the outside of the lobe facing the rim of the head sparsely felty hairy, the outer three densely covered in cringed adpressed hairs. The higher part of the lobes (called limbs) is narrowly elliptic in shape with a pointy tip, variably covered with long soft hairs. The

style Style is a manner of doing or presenting things and may refer to: * Architectural style, the features that make a building or structure historically identifiable * Design, the process of creating something * Fashion, a prevailing mode of clothing ...

is stout, 5–6 cm (2.0–2.4 in) long and 2–3 mm (0.08–0.12 in) in diameter, when fully developed slightly curved towards the center of the head. The slightly thickened part at the tip of the style that hovered up the pollen while in the bud called

pollen presenter A pollen-presenter is an area on the tip of the style in flowers of plants of the family Proteaceae on which the anthers release their pollen prior to anthesis. To ensure pollination, the style grows during anthesis, sticking out the pollen-present ...

is conical in shape with a pointy tip, about 6 mm (0.24 in) long and half as wide, with a groove that acts as the stigma at the very tip. The

ovary The ovary is an organ in the female reproductive system that produces an ovum. When released, this travels down the fallopian tube into the uterus, where it may become fertilized by a sperm. There is an ovary () found on each side of the body. ...

is subtended by four triangular, ivory to cream coloured scales of about 1½ mm (0.06 in) long.

Differences with other pincushions

''L. glabrum'' differs from other pincushions because of its large inverted egg-shaped, bright green, hairless leaves of 8–12 cm (3.2–4.8 in) long and 3–5 cm (1.2–2.0 in) wide, with seven to fourteen teeth near the tip, the stems hairless when matured and the bracts subtending the common base of the flowers in one head with pointy and recurved tips.

Taxonomy

The Outeniqua pincushion was first recognised as a separate species and described by

Edwin Percy Phillips Edwin Percy Phillips (18 February 1884 – 12 April 1967) was a South African botanist and taxonomist, noted for his monumental work ''The Genera of South African Flowering Plants'' first published in 1926. Phillips was born in Sea Point, Cap ...

in 1910, but the

type specimen In biology, a type is a particular wiktionary:en:specimen, specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally attached. In other words, a type is an example that serves to a ...

was already collected in 1814 by English explorer and naturalist

William John Burchell __NOTOC__ William John Burchell (23 July 1781 – 23 March 1863) was an English explorer, naturalist, traveller, artist, and author. His thousands of plant specimens, as well as field journals from his South African expedition, are held by Ke ...

. ''Leucospermum glabrum'' is assigned to the tree pincushions,

section Section, Sectioning or Sectioned may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Section (music), a complete, but not independent, musical idea * Section (typography), a subdivision, especially of a chapter, in books and documents ** Section sign ...

'' Conocarpodendron''. The name of the species ''glabrum'' is

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

and means "hairless", a reference to the lack of hair on the leaves.

Distribution, habitat and ecology

The Outeniqua pincushion occurs here and there between the Cradockberg near

George George may refer to: People * George (given name) * George (surname) * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Washington, First President of the United States * George W. Bush, 43rd Presiden ...

and Prince Alfred's Pass near

Plettenberg Bay Plettenberg Bay, nicknamed Plet or Plett, is the primary town of the Bitou Local Municipality in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. As of the census of 2001, there were 29,149 population. It was originally named Bahia Formosa ("beautifu ...

in the southern foothills of the

Outeniqua Mountains The Outeniqua Mountains, named after the Outeniqua Khoikhoi who lived there, is a mountain range that runs a parallel to the southern coast of South Africa, and forms a continuous range with the Langeberg to the west and the Tsitsikamma Mountains ...

. It only grows on south-facing, sheltered, cool slopes between of 150–450 m (500–1500 ft) altitude, where it experiences an annual precipitation of 750–1000 mm (30–40 in) more or less evenly distributed over the year. Plants are found in

fynbos Fynbos (; meaning fine plants) is a small belt of natural shrubland or heathland vegetation located in the Western Cape and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa. This area is predominantly coastal and mountainous, with a Mediterranean clim ...

on moist peat soils between other very tall shrubs such as '' Laurophyllus capensis'', several species of ''

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' ...

'', ''

Berzelia ''Berzelia'' is a genus consisting of 12 species of upright, wiry-stemmed, evergreen shrubs with a dense covering of small, fine, needle-like leaves. The flowers which appear in spring and summer, are minute but are packed in spherical clusters ...

'' and ''

Erica Erica or ERICA may refer to: * Erica (given name) * ''Erica'' (plant), a flowering plant genus * Erica (chatbot), a service of Bank of America * ''Erica'' (video game), a 2019 FMV video game * ''Erica'' (spider), a jumping spider genus * Eric ...

'', forming a dense vegetation called "hygrophilous macchia".

Conservation

The Outeniqua pincushion is considered an

endangered species An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inv ...

because there are only fourteen subpopulations. The total population size is falling due to

invasive plant species An invasive species otherwise known as an alien is an introduced organism that becomes overpopulated and harms its new environment. Although most introduced species are neutral or beneficial with respect to other species, invasive species ad ...

, conversion to forest and the maintenance of

fire break A firebreak or double track (also called a fire line, fuel break, fireroad and firetrail in Australia) is a gap in vegetation or other combustible material that acts as a barrier to slow or stop the progress of a bushfire or wildfire. A firebre ...

s. Subpopulations strongly fluctuate in size because of

wildfire A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of Combustibility and flammability, combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire ...

s. The total size of the population is below a thousand mature plants. New stands of this species may develop from the underground

soil seed bank The soil seed bank is the natural storage of seeds, often dormant, within the soil of most ecosystems. The study of soil seed banks started in 1859 when Charles Darwin observed the emergence of seedlings using soil samples from the bottom of a lak ...

after a fire and subsequent rains.

References

External links

several photos
{{Taxonbar, from=Q4898016 glabrum Endemic flora of the Cape Provinces Plants described in 1910