Gnidia pinifolia in the Kogelberg

Gnidia pinifolia, here flowering in the Kogelberg fynbos in November, is good to see on a bright day; also good to smell, but that happens at night when the fragrance can be enjoyed.

Some G. pinifolia plants produce pink buds before the white flowers open. Some pink colouring is also added by the upper involucral leaves below the flowers.

Although 50 species of Gnidia grow somewhere in the fynbos. That is not even half the members of this genus. Some of them grow in Madagascar, others as far as India.

Long ago a well-known Gnidia species, G. deserticola, now known as Lasiosiphon deserticola, was used in producing a leather dye, giving the genus its common name of saffron bush (Manning, 2007; Bean and Johns, 2005).