''Serruria aemula'' is a critically endangered species of flowering plant in the family
Proteaceae
The Proteaceae form a family (biology), family of flowering plants predominantly distributed in the Southern Hemisphere. The family comprises 83 genus, genera with about 1,660 known species. Australia and South Africa have the greatest concentr ...
, endemic to
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 ...
. It is known by the common name of strawberry spiderhead.
This plant used to occur in large numbers on the
Cape Flats
The Cape Flats () is an expansive, low-lying, flat area situated to the southeast of the central business district of Cape Town. The Cape Flats is also the name of an administrative region of the City of Cape Town, which lies within the larger geo ...
of
Cape Town
Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...
. Its natural habitat now lies under
urban sprawl
Urban sprawl (also known as suburban sprawl or urban encroachment) is defined as "the spreading of urban developments (such as houses and shopping centers) on undeveloped land near a city". Urban sprawl has been described as the unrestricted ...
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. Mostly it grows up to 0.5m in height.
References
aemula
Endemic flora of the Cape Provinces
Natural history of Cape Town
{{Proteaceae-stub