Phylica villosa

Phylica villosa, commonly known as the needle hard-leaf, is a sparsely branched shrub seldom reaching more than 1 m in height (SA Tree List No. 453.4). It is unusual for a shrub of this size to have received a number in the Tree List, probably slipped in by association with one of the few tree-sized phylicas.

The small distribution of the species is in a part of the Western Cape, in the Cederberg to the Olifants River Mountains and Piketberg. The photo was taken on the Piketberg Mountain.

The habitat is upper fynbos slopes on sandstone. The species is not considered to be threatened in its habitat early in the twenty first century.

It is thought that the plant in the photo belongs to a restricted range variety, var. pedicellata (Coates Palgrave, 2002; Bond and Goldblatt, 1984; iNaturalist; http://redlist.sanbi.org).