Mimetes pauciflorus
Introduction
Mimetes pauciflorus has dense, narrow, cylindrical, orange-yellow flower heads at the tips of tall stems in spring. It grows in moist sandstone fynbos in the Outeniqua and Tsitsikamma Mountains and is threatened by the spread of alien invasive trees.
Description
Description
Mimetes pauciflorus is an evergreen, single-stemmed, sparsely branching, upright shrub 2–4 m high. It has alternately arranged, hairy, narrowly to broadly ovate leaves on the upper parts of the stems, the lower parts are leafless, with a reddish-brown bark. The flower heads are narrow spikes at the tips of the stems. Each consists of 40–120 headlets, densely crowded together, and each headlet is made up of 3 individual flowers. The flowers are tightly enclosed by 4 or 5, orange-yellow, lance-shaped involucral bracts with pointed tips. The style is orange with a red tip, the pollen presenter is needle-like. Seed is a rounded, whitish nut. Flowering time is in spring (August to November with the peak in September) and fruits are released 2–6 months after flowering.
Conservation Status
Status
Mimetes pauciflorus is known to occur at between 11 and 13 locations, and the population of this species is declining in parts of its range due to competition from alien invasive plants, particularly pines. It is a rare species with a restricted natural range and has already lost at least 22% of its habitat to timber plantations but what remains is conserved inside protected areas. Mimetes pauciflorus is assessed as Near Threatened (NT) by the Red List of South African Plants.
Distribution and habitat
Distribution description
Mimetes pauciflorus occurs in scattered stands on south-facing slopes that are moist all year, at 300–1 500 m altitude in Tsitsikamma Sandstone Fynbos and South Outeniqua Sandstone Fynbos in the Outeniqua and Tsitsikamma Mountains in the Western and Eastern Cape.
Derivation of name and historical aspects
History
Mimetes, a genus in the Proteaceae family, is native to South Africa. The name Mimetes comes from the Greek word mimos, which means ‘imitator’ or ‘mimic’. This name most likely refers to the plant's appearance, which mimics or resembles other genera in the Proteaceae. The name pauciflorus is from Latin, where paucus means ‘few’ and florus means ‘flowers’, hence pauciflorus means ‘few-flowered’. This name represents a significant feature of the species, namely its three blooms per headlet, compared to other species in the genus.
The genus Mimetes is recognizable from other genera in the Proteaceae family due to its dense cylindrical flower heads, which are made up of many tubular, axillary, stalkless headlets, containing 3 to 35 flowers, and subtended by a leaf. The perianth segments are free and symmetrical. The style is hairless, with a unique pollen presenter in each species. The leaves have 1 to 3 teeth, and the fruit is typically ovoid to cylindrical, mostly hairless, and features an elaiosome at both ends connected by a ridge. The genus is divided into four sections and Mimetes pauciflorus belongs in section Hirtus, the Tube Pagodas, along with M. hirtus (marsh pagoda), M. palustris (cryptic pagoda) and M. capitulatus (conical pagoda). They all have colourful involucral bracts that surround the headlet of flowers like a tube, and the involucral leaves are small and not coloured or decorative. Most other pagodas have colourful involucral leaves that are larger than the involucral bracts.
Ecology
Ecology
Mimetes pauciflorus, like other members of the Proteaceae family, plays a vital role in the biodiversity of the fynbos. It provides food and habitat for various species, including pollinators like birds and seed-dispersing ants.
Seeds of Mimetes pauciflorus have elaiosomes, which are attractive to certain ants. The ants are quick to find and collect the seeds, carrying them to their underground nests, where they eat the elaiosome but leave the rest of the seed unharmed. In the ant nests, the seeds are safe from seed-eaters like rodents, and from fire. Fynbos is prone to fires, and Mimetes pauciflorus plants are killed by fire but the population survives because the seeds are safely sequestered underground in ant nests, and germinate after the fire. The flowers of Mimetes pauciflorus are pollinated by nectar-feeding birds, such as the Cape Sugarbird or sunbirds. Some fynbos rodents, in particular the Vlei Rat, eat large amounts of plant material and use plant material to build their nests, as well as eating the nut-like seeds of many members of the protea family. The tall, sparse, upright growth habit of Mimetes pauciflorus, may be an evolutionary response to the huge appetite of vlei rats.
Uses
Use
There are no medicinal or cultural uses recorded for Mimetes pauciflorus. Plants are difficult to maintain in cultivation, they are short-lived and susceptible to many fungal diseases. This species is best grown in an area that mimics its habitat, on an open, south-facing slope, in well-drained, acidic soil that is wet all year round, and left to grow undisturbed by hoeing and weeding around its base. Plants that are grafted onto more adaptable rootstock, may prove easier to maintain in the garden.
Growing Mimetes pauciflorus
Grow
Mimetes pauciflorus is seldom cultivated and there are not many records, but at Kirstenbosch it has been successfully propagated by cuttings and there are ongoing trials on seed sowing and grafting.
Propagation by cuttings was done using the same method that is used to propagate other Mimetes (Pagodas) such as Mimetes hirtus and Mimetes capitulatus since they are closely related and all are tube pagodas. Cuttings were taken of healthy material from a population found in the Outeniqua Mountains, in autumn.
Make cuttings about 7 cm long, remove the lower third of leaves and cut off the tip, and dip the base of the cutting in rooting hormone suitable for semi-hardwood cuttings. Prepare a well-aerated, free-draining rooting medium such as 50% perlite and 50% bark. Place the cutting trays on heated benches with a temperature 24–30°C, in a mist unit with a misting frequency of 10 seconds every 15 minutes. When the cuttings have rooted, transplant them into an acidic fynbos soil mix, such as 70% sand and 30% fine-milled pine bark. Move them to a hardening-off area in light shade before planting them into the garden. Fungicides to stop rust and damping-off are routinely used during the process. The cuttings are fed with organic, seaweed-based fertilizer, which also helps overcome plant shock. Organic chicken-manure fertilizer is added when the plants reach the hardening-off area.
Growing pagodas from seed is possible but not easy because seeds are difficult to get. Not many seeds are produced by a plant, and the seeds are not held on the plant, but are dropped as soon as they are ripe. Therefore, the only way to harvest ripe seeds successfully is to be there as they ripen and catch them, or by fixing a light, cloth mesh bag over the pollinated flower heads that will catch the seeds when they fall. Sow seeds in autumn (April), using a well-drained, sandy, acidic soil mix.
References
- Bond, W.J. & Breytenbach, G.J. 1985. Ants, rodents and seed predation in Proteaceae. African Zoology 20(3):150-154.
- Manning, J. & Goldblatt, P. 2012. Plants of the Greater Cape Floristic Region 1: the Core Cape Flora. Strelitzia 29. South African National Biodiversity Institute, Pretoria.
- Nndanduleni, M. 2019. Mimetes splendidus Salisb. ex Knight (Proteaceae). PlantZAfrica. Online. https://pza.sanbi.org/mimetes-splendidus.
- Paterson-Jones, J.C. 1978. Mimetes. Veld & Flora 64(3): 78–80
- Protea Atlas Project. Identifying Pagodas - Mimetes. https://www.proteaatlas.org.za/pagodaid.htm. Accessed on 2024/01/25.
- Protea Atlas Project. Tube Pagodas – Mimetes. https://www.proteaatlas.org.za/pagoda4.htm. Accessed on 2024/01/25.
- Rebelo, A.G., Mtshali, H. & Von Staden, L. 2020. Mimetes pauciflorus R.Br. National Assessment: Red List of South African Plants. http://redlist.sanbi.org/species.php?species=804-15. Accessed on 25/01/2024.
- Riegel, F. 2023. Observation of Mimetes pauciflorus, Outeniqua Mountains, Western Cape. iNaturalist. Online. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/212556125.
- Rourke, J.P. 1984. A revision of the genus Mimetes. Journal of South African Botany Volume 50.
- Turner, D. 2015-08. Observation of Mimetes pauciflorus, Tierkop, Outeniquas, Western Cape. iNaturalist. Online. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/11065816.
- Vlok, J. 1995. Fynbos and rodents. Veld & Flora 81(4):105.
- Vogts, M. 1989. South Africa’s Proteaceae. Know them and grow them. Struik Publishers, Cape Town.
Credits
Anele Tsotso and Alice Notten
Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden
October 2024
Acknowlegements: Anele Tsotso thanks his supervisor Mashudu Nndanduleni, for introducing him to this species and for sharing his images, and his fellow interns and colleagues Mr S. Kheswa and Miss Q. Siwisa for assistance with field work and nursery trials; and Felix Riegel and Di Turner for making their images available via iNaturalist.
Plant Attributes:
Plant Type: Shrub
SA Distribution: Eastern Cape, Western Cape
Soil type: Sandy
Flowering season: Spring, Early Summer, Winter
PH: Acid
Flower colour: Red, Yellow, Orange
Aspect: Full Sun
Gardening skill: Challenging
Special Features:
Attracts birds
Horticultural zones
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