Polygala teretifolia

Polygala teretifolia, commonly known in Afrikaans as Bothasblombos, is a multistemmed shrub that reaches 1 m in height. 

The short dense racemes are scattered along the stems, not at stem-tips. The brightly coloured flowers, crested with white brushes on the keel petals, allow some straight and narrow, hairy leaves to show among the flowers. There are variably coloured veins on the lateral sepals and petals, tiny notches sometimes visible at petal tips.

The species distribution is in the Western Cape and the Eastern Cape, a South Africa endemic. The photo was taken during September in the Anysberg north of Barrydale, south of Laingsburg.

The habitat is renosterveld and scrub in clayey soils. The species is not considered threatened in habitat  early in the twenty first century.

The shrubs are not much browsed by game and stock (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; www.redlist.sanbi.org).