Serruria millefolia

Serruria millefolia, commonly the millileaf spiderhead and sometimes the bottlebrush spiderhead, is a rounded, single-stemmed shrub reaching heights to 50 cm and becomes about equally wide.

The stalked, dissected leaves are erect, crowded on the upper stems. The grey-haired leaves end in up to ten pointed tips. Leaf dimensions are up to 14 mm long and 10 mm wide.

The creamy yellow to creamy green flowerheads are globose, from 1 cm to 2,5 cm in diameter, growing in clusters of about 25 heads. The peduncles are short, the involucral bracts ovate, the perianths silky-haired. The straight styles are up to 7 mm long and the club-shaped pollen presenters 1 mm. Flowering happens from late winter to early summer. The plants are pollinated by insects.

The fruits are released about two months after flowering. 

The species distribution is in the northwest of the Western Cape, in the Cederberg to the Bokkeveld and slightly into the southwest of the Northern Cape near the Olifants River.

The habitat is sandstone derived fynbos and sandy flats at elevations from 350 m to 800 m. The habitat population is deemed endangered early in the twenty first century, due to habitat degradation and habitat loss from agriculture (Rebelo, 1995; Bond and Goldblatt, 1984; iNaturalist; http://redlist.sanbi.org).