''Oldenburgia paradoxa Less.'' is a species in the genus '' Oldenburgia'', in the family

Asteraceae Asteraceae () is a large family (biology), family of flowering plants that consists of over 32,000 known species in over 1,900 genera within the Order (biology), order Asterales. The number of species in Asteraceae is rivaled only by the Orchi ...

Description

In its

habit A habit (or wont, as a humorous and formal term) is a routine of behavior that is repeated regularly and tends to occur subconsciously. A 1903 paper in the '' American Journal of Psychology'' defined a "habit, from the standpoint of psychology, ...

''Oldenburgia paradoxa'' is a remarkably dense, usually cushion-shaped,

subshrub A subshrub (Latin ''suffrutex'') or undershrub is either a small shrub (e.g. prostrate shrubs) or a perennial that is largely herbaceous but slightly woody at the base (e.g. garden pink and florist's chrysanthemum). The term is often interch ...

, typically growing in the form of a hemisphere. Plants will sometimes exceed a metre in height, but usually are much shorter, commonly 30 cm or so. The leaves are elliptical, alternate, and in appearance are typical of the genus, leathery, deep green above, and felted white below. They are suggestive of

loquat The loquat (''Eriobotrya japonica'', Chinese: 枇杷; Pinyin: pípá) is a large evergreen shrub or tree grown commercially for its orange fruit. It is also cultivated as an ornamental plant. The loquat is in the family Rosaceae, subfamily Spi ...

leaves with the margins slightly rolled down. Young leaves are vividly white-felted all over; as they mature, they shed the felt on the upper surface, but retain the felt on their under-surfaces. Unlike the leaves of other members of the genus, the leaves of ''Oldenburgia paradoxa'' are crowded impenetrably closely at the branch tips around the periphery of the plant, and they are much smaller, being some 10 cm long. The branches have thick, corky bark that generally is not visible on an undamaged plant. The

flower heads A pseudanthium (; : pseudanthia) is an inflorescence that resembles a flower. The word is sometimes used for other structures that are neither a true flower nor a true inflorescence. Examples of pseudanthia include flower heads, composite flowers ...

are

pedunculate In botany, a peduncle is a stalk supporting an inflorescence or a solitary flower, or, after fecundation, an infructescence or a solitary fruit. The peduncle sometimes has bracts (a type of cataphyll) at nodes. The main axis of an infloresce ...

to nearly

sessile Sessility, or sessile, may refer to: * Sessility (motility), organisms which are not able to move about * Sessility (botany), flowers or leaves that grow directly from the stem or peduncle of a plant * Sessility (medicine), tumors and polyps that ...

, but are exceptional among Oldenburgias, being borne among the leaves at the surface of the plant cushion; the other Oldenburgia species have tall peduncles that stand proud of the plant. The flower heads are about 5 cm in diameter, creamy, sometimes with a tinge of pink or purple. The flowerheads are solitary and terminal.

Distribution and environment

The species is endemic to the mountains of the southern part of the

Western Cape The Western Cape ( ; , ) is a provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the List of South African provinces by area, fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , an ...

Province in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. Its status is not clear; it always was uncommon and persists largely in mountain reserves. It grows in sandstone on cliffs, in rock crevices, and near mountain tops where it has little competition from other plants.

References

External links

* Oldenburgia Subshrubs {{asteraceae-stub