Wiborgia tenuifolia

Wiborgia tenuifolia is a much-branched, erect to rounded shrub reaching heights from 70 cm to 1,5 m growing from a single stem. Some few-leaved young branch tips are extended beyond the dense foliage in picture during August at the end of the rainy season. Flat fruit discs are in evidence.

The species is distributed from Nieuwoudtville to Worcester, Riversdale and the Little Karoo. The pink-flowered Wiborgia occurring as far as Nieuwoudtville is mostly taken to be W. tetraptera, a name sometimes considered synonymous with W. tenuifolia. W. tetraptera is taken here to be the cream or greenish flowering plant that does not show purple or rose floral tinges. The photo was taken on the Matjiesfontein flower farm near Nieuwoudtville.

The habitat is renosterveld and fynbos in low-lying areas. The plant is considered to be near threatened in its habitat early in the twenty first century, due to agriculture, both from crop cultivation and the browsing of livestock (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2010; Manning and Goldblatt, 1997; Bond and Goldblatt, 1984; iNaturalist; http://redlist.sanbi.org).