Leucadendron pubescens female bush

This female Leucadendron pubescens shrub has grown tall and wide on the Piketberg Mountain. The involucral leaves adjacent to the cones are similar to the plant’s general silvery foliage. Female plants have leaves roughly twice as long as male plants.

The old, lower stems are bare, the leaves concentrated at and fairly near the stem-tips. The bark on old big branches is grey or brown and initially smooth, later thinly cracked.

The fruit of this shrub is a small, hard nut, broader than long, brown and sparsely hairy (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2010; Paterson-Jones and Manning, 2007; Coates Palgrave, 2002; iNaturalist).