Struthiola argentea

Struthiola argentea, in Afrikaans the aandgonna (evening gonna), a name shared with S. ciliata, is a branched but single-stemmed shrub reaching heights around 2 m.

The oval, elliptic to nearly round leaves have bluntly to sharply pointed tips. They overlap densely in four ranks ascending up the stems. There is faint ribbing on the lower leaf surfaces and hairy fringes along the margins. The leaves are about 3 cm long and 2 cm wide.

The long-tubed flowers grow solitary from leaf axils, forming spikes near stem-tips. Each yellow to reddish orange flower with silky, cylindrical tube has twelve small, pointed scales at the corolla mouth. The flower is about 5 mm wide at its mouth, the tube 20 mm long.

The flowers open daily in mid-afternoon. They are fragrant, mainly at night. Flowering happens almost throughout the year depending on their locality.

The species is found in a broad swathe along the south coast in the Western Cape and Eastern Cape, from Grabouw to Port Elizabeth including the Little Karoo. The photo was taken near Mossel Bay.

The habitat is fynbos and renosterveld on flats and slopes, the plants growing in loam soils. The species is not considered to be threatened in its habitat early in the twenty first century (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Manning, 2007; Bond and Goldblatt, 1984; http://redlist.sanbi.org).