Muraltia satureioides

Muraltia satureioides is a sprawling or erect shrublet that grows to 60 cm on the southern coastal flats. The plants are mostly found in calcareous, sandy soil from the Cape Peninsula to around Knysna. Young stems are hairy.

The leaves are narrow and oblong with spiny tips that curve outwards. Leaves are fringed with tiny hairs on the margins and keels. Leaf colour is green or yellowish green, sometimes tinged with red near stem tips.

There is (or was) a Cape Peninsula variety, M. satureioides var. salteri that hasn’t been seen for decades and is thought to be extinct. There are other varieties; the one pictured here may be var. floribunda. Var. satureioides with flowers on densely leaved cylindrical stems is not threatened early in the twenty first century (Manning, 2009; Privett and Lutzeyer, 2010; www.redlist.sanbi.org).