Serruria phylicoides

Serruria phylicoides, commonly known as the bearded spiderhead and previously scientifically as S. barbigera, is an erect to somewhat rounded, single-stemmed shrublet reaching heights from 30 cm to 1 m, and about 30 cm in diameter.

The leaves are divided into numerous needle-like segments. Up to thirty leaf segment tips may point up or out in one feathery but hairless leaf. A leaf is from 2,5 cm to 6 cm long, and up to 3 cm wide. Leaf colour varies from grey-green or yellow-green to yellow.

The globose, stem-tip flowerheads are about 1,5 cm wide, grown in clusters of up to four at stem-tips. A head consists of fifteen to thirty straight, deep pink to carmine florets, the perianths covered in silvery hairs. Bloomtime is from late winter to early summer. Pollination is done by insects.

The species distribution is in the southwest of the Western Cape, from Du Toit's Kloof to Hottentots-Holland and eastwards along the Kleinrivier Mountains as far as Riviersonderend. The photo was taken near Hermanus.

The habitat is sandstone derived fynbos slopes and flats at elevations from 330 m to 1800 m. The habitat population is deemed of least concern early in the twenty first century (Bean and Johns, 2005; Rebelo, 1995; Bond and Goldblatt, 1984; iNaturalist; http://redlist.sanbi.org).