Penaea cneorum

Penaea cneorum is a variable shrub, occasionally a small tree of 4 m that resprouts after fire. It has hairless upper branches that are sometimes reddish and densely covered in small, sessile leaves arranged in four ranks.

The compact spikes of small yellow flowers rest upon distinctive broad yellow, orange or pink bracts that grow at the tips of the branchlets.

The plant is found in a broad coastal swathe along the south of the Western Cape from the Kogelberg and into the west of the Eastern Cape as far east as Gqeberha. 

The habitat is fynbos along stream banks and in damp areas of coastal sandstone slopes. Five subspecies of P. cneorum are recognised in South Africa, none of them threatened in habitat early in the twenty first century (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Manning, 2007; iNaturalist; http://redlist.sanbi.org).