Pincushion (Leucospermum cordifolium)

Description

Leucospermum cordifolium is an upright, evergreen shrub of up to 1½ m (5 ft) high that is assigned to the Proteaceae. The flower heads are globe-shape with a flattened top, 10–12 cm (3.9–4.7 in) in diameter, and are carried individually or with two or three together mostly at a right angle to its branch. The perianth is 3–3½ cm long, yellow, orange or crimson in color. From each flower emerges a 4½–6 cm (1.8–2.4 in) long style sticking out horizontally but curving upwards near the obliquely, shell-shaped, thicker pollen presenter. This gives each head the appearance of a pincushion. Its common name is ornamental pincushion in English and bobbejaanklou in Afrikaans. It flowers between the middle of July and the end of November. It naturally occurs near the south coast of the Western Cape province of South Africa. Varieties and hybrids of this species are used as cut flower and garden plant. L. cordifolium is a rounded and spreading shrub of up to 1½ m (5 ft) high and 2 m (6.6 ft) in diameter that has a single trunk at its base from which branches spread horizontally and often bend towards the ground. The flowering stems may be more or less erect or spreading 5–8 mm (0.20–0.31 in) in diameter initially covered in short, fine, cringy hairs, which may go lost with age. The hard, green leaves are set alternately along the branches, more or less directed upwards, oval or heart-shaped with an entire margin near the flowers and bluntly oblong and with up to six bony teeth at the tip lower down, 2–8 cm (0.79–3.15 in) long and 2–4½ cm (0.8–1.8 in) wide, softly hairy at first, becoming hairless. The flower heads are set on stalk of up to 1½ cm (0.6 in) long, have a flattened globe-shape of 10–12 cm (3.9–4.7 in) in diameter, and are carried individually or with two or three together mostly at a right angle to its branch. The common base is narrowly conical in shape with a pointy tip 3–3½ cm (1.2–1.4 in) long and ¾ cm (0.3 in) wide. The bracts that subtend the flower head consists of oval bracts with a pointy tip of 4–5 mm (0.16–0.20 in) wide and about 8 mm (0.31 in) long, overlapping and pressed against the common base, rubbery and with some short and soft hair. The bracts at the foot of each individual flower are concave, embrace the perianth at its base, have a pointy, incurved tip 8–10 mm (0.31–0.39 in) long and about 7 mm (0.28 in) wide, with a rubbery consistency and thickly woolly at its base. The perianth is 3–3½ cm long, yellow, orange or crimson in color. The cylindric perianth tube is hairless and 8–10 mm (0.31–0.39 in). The three periant lobes at the side of the centre of the flowerhead remain united and form a hairless, rolled sheath, except for some rigid hairs on the margins. The lobe facing towards the rim of the flowerhead is free. The anthers are ovate and sit atop a 1 mm (0.039 in) long filament. The style is 4½–6 cm (1.8–2.4 in) long, sticking out horizontally but curving upwards near the obliquely shell-shaped pollen presenter, with a flattened tip that also contains an oblique groove that functions as the stigma. Subtending the ovary are four awl-shaped scales of about 2 mm (0.079 in) long. The subtribe Proteinae, to which the genus Leucospermum has been assigned, consistently has a basic chromosome number of twelve (2n=24).