Muraltia arachnoidea

Muraltia arachnoidea is a rigid, spreading shrublet reaching heights from 30 cm to 60 cm. The old, woody stems not fully covered by leaves are purplish brown in picture; lowest stem parts are woody and leafless, presumably browner than purple. The plants are estimated to live from 10 to 15 years. 

The leaf-covered and hairy stems are not much-branched, appearing as thick green cylinders, criss-crossing in the photo.

The species is distributed in a restricted area of the Western Cape around Piketberg and possibly Malmesbury. The photo was taken on the Piketberg Mountain on a farm called Hebron.

The habitat is lower sandstone slopes and plateaus in fynbos. The plant is considered to be near threatened in its habitat early in the twenty first century, due to habitat loss from crop farming (Bond and Goldblatt, 1984; iNaturalist; http://redlist.sanbi.org).