Liparia splendens subsp. comantha

Liparia splendens subsp. comantha is a stiff, spreading, sometimes rounded shrub reaching heights up to 1 m in height.

The simple, alternate, stalkless leaves are ovate to elliptic in shape with cream midribs and fainter lateral veins from the base. The blade surfaces are smooth and hairless, the margins entire and the tips acutely pointed. Leaf length is about 4 cm.

Many yellow flowers are crowded in each head among orange and red bracts and calyces. The globose flowerheads at stem-tips may nod but not always, like the one in picture found on a small plant near Hermanus. The flowers are surrounded by large, hair-fringed, flower-coloured bracts. The heads are about 7 cm in diameter. Flowering occurs from late autumn until after midsummer.

The subspecies distribution is in the Western Cape, from the Hottentots Holland Mountains eastwards to Aasvogelberg near Albertinia. The habitat is rocky, sandstone fynbos slopes from sea level to 1500 m. The habitat population is deemed of least concern early in the twenty first century (Manning, 2009; Bean and Johns, 2005; iNaturalist; http://redlist.sanbi.org).