Mossel Bay Pincushion

The Mossel Bay pincushion is an upright, rounded shrub of 2–3 m (6–9 ft) high and up to 4 m (12 ft) in diameter that has a stout main stem of up to 8 cm (3.2 in) in diameter. The branches are covered by a smooth, grey bark. The flowering branches are round in cross-section, ½–1 cm (0.2–0.4 in) in diameter and covered in a dense, greyish layer of felty, cringy hairs pressed to the surface, with some long silky hairs. The leaves are hairless, inverted egg-shaped or broadly wedge-shaped, 3½–7 cm (1.4–2.8 in) long and 1½–3 cm (0.6–1.2 in) wide, with between six and eleven teeth near the tip, oriented slightly pointing upwards and somewhat overlapping. The flower heads are seated in the axil of a leaf, globe-shaped, 6 cm (2.4 in) in diameter, with up to four head per flowering stem. The common base of the flowers in the same head is broadly cone-shaped, about 2 cm (0.8 in) high and 1½ cm (0.6 in) wide. It is subtended by an involucre consisting of oval bracts with a pointy tip of about 0.8 cm (0.32 in) long and ½ cm (0.2 in) wide, that are rubbery in consistency, and densely set with soft grey hairs. …

L. praecox can be found in a relatively small area between Mossel Bay in the east to the mouth of the Gouritz River a little west of Albertinia and from the line between these locations southwards to the coast. Within this area it is locally common and there are several very dense stands, although an alien Hakea species is encroaching. At Mossel Bay L. praecox grows on weathered Table Mountain Sandstone, but elsewhere the species can only be found on deep stabilised white Tertiary to recently deposited, acidulous sands on the fore coast. L. praecox has an unusual flowering period, that begins in April, the southern hemisphere fall, until the early spring in September.