Metalasia fastigiata

Metalasia fastigiata, commonly known in Afrikaans as the blombos (flower bush), a name shared freely in the genus, is a branched, rounded shrub growing erect branches to heights around 1,5 m. 

The leaves are needle-like, twisted and flexed down. Younger leaves grow in tufts from primary leaf axils. The leaf margins are rolled upwards, white and woolly in the resultant groove.

Small discoid flowerheads, each made up of about five flowers, grow at stem tips in clusters of up to 2,5 cm in diameter. The bracts around the flowerheads are pink, the inner ones petal-like. Flowering happens from late winter through spring.

The distribution in the southwestern Cape ranges from Nieuwoudtville and Calvinia to Piketberg and Wellington. This photo was taken in October in Bainskloof of a pale-flowering specimen, its leaves showing much white.

The habitat is fynbos in sandy soils at elevations between 700 m to 1100 m. The habitat population is deemed of least concern early in the twenty first century (Manning, 2007; Manning and Goldblatt, 1997; iNaturalist; https://redlist.sanbi.org).