Mimetes hottentoticus (lat.) - a species of plants of the genus Mimetes of the Protein family . Evergreen upright large shrub 1.5-3 m high. Has silvery broad egg-shaped leaves or egg-shaped leaves with three small teeth, collected at the tip of the leaf. The inflorescence of a cylindrical shape ends in a bunch of smaller relatively upright silvery or pinkish leaves. Each flower head consists of 8-12 separate vertical parallel red pistils , abutting against a leaf supporting the next flower. The pestle column ends with a short white zone with a blackish stigma. May bloom from January to March, and some - until May. The flower is called the silver pagoda. Finbosh endemic of the Cape region of South Africa, found exclusively on the Kogelberg mountain range. [2] [3]
| Mimetes hottentoticus |
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Mimetes hottentoticus |
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| Order : | Proteanae Takht. , 1967 |
| View: | Mimetes hottentoticus |
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Mimetes hottentoticus E. Phillips & [Hutch. |
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Three separate populations of M. hottentoticus are known, located on the Kogelberg peak, at an altitude of 1000-1250 m. The shrub grows on peat glades on acidic sandy soils, poor in nutrients selected from quartzite, among other species of finbos , such as herbs of the restia family Elegia mucronata , Brunia alopecuroides and Erica desmantha. This area is characterized by constant humidity with an average annual rainfall of more than 2000 mm. In winter there are frequent rains with a northwest wind, and in summer there are frequent fogs from sea winds from the southeast [4] [3] .
Flowers of the species are pollinated by birds, flowering is from January to May with a peak in February. The fruits ripen about six months after flowering and fall to the ground. They are collected by local ants, who carry fruit to their underground nest, where they eat a juicy portion of seeds, ant bread , and the seeds remain protected. Seeds subsequently germinate after a field fire. Plants themselves do not survive in fires [5] .
The specimen was first collected by Thomas Pearson Stokoe, who found the species in November 1921. In February 1922, he again visited the same place and collected flowering samples. The species was described in 1923 by South African nerds Edwin Percy Phillips and John Hutchinson , who named the species Mimetes hottentoticus [4] .
The species hottentoticus was named after a site close to the plant range in the Hottentots Holland Mountains [3] .
