Mimetes hottentoticus

Mimetes hottentoticus, the silver pagoda, matchstick pagoda or in Afrikaans the Hottentotstompie (little Hottentot stump), is an erect, single-stemmed shrub reaching 1 m to 3 m in height. The plants survive for about 25 years.

The distribution of the rare species is restricted to a small area of only about 5 sq km on a few peaks in the Kogelberg Nature Reserve in the southwest of the Western Cape.

The habitat is southerly upper fynbos slopes in seeps at elevations from 1000 m to 1260 m. The rainfall is here over 2000 mm per annum. The plants leave long-lived seeds in the ground, germinating after the next fire. The habitat population is deemed vulnerable early in the twenty first century, due to too frequent fire, invasive alien vegetation and Phytophthora infection.

The plants are hardy in habitat, but difficult to grow. Replicating the montane growing conditions is not easy, which is remarkable, given how low the nutrient levels are in the delicate habitat soil (Manning, 2007; Rebelo, 1995; iNaturalist; https://pza.sanbi.org; http://redlist.sanbi.org).