Hymenolepis crithmifolia stressed

In drought at the end of the summer season Hymenolepis crithmifolia may be without its annually recurring glamour. This shrub was seen in March in renosterveld near Montagu.

The long woody stems are dark, sparsely branched and mostly bare, barring small stem-tip leaf clusters now quite grey from longing for rain. Summer heat is harder on the vegetation when there are bare patches on the ground all around.