''Serruria aemula'' is a critically endangered species of flowering plant in 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 ...
, endemic to
South Africa. It is known by the common name of strawberry spiderhead.
This plant used to occur in large numbers on the
Cape Flats of
Cape Town. Its natural habitat now lies under
urban sprawl so only a few plants survive on patches of road-side. Several of its subspecies are now in fact extinct in the wild, surviving only in botanical gardens.
References
aemula
''Aemula'' is an extinct genus of brachiopods that lived during the Cretaceous period. The pedunculate brachiopod species '' Aemula inusitata'' had lived on the bodies of larger animals which served for enough feeding surface, since no large ...
Endemic flora of South Africa
{{proteaceae-stub