Plants of the Week

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E.g., 11/12/2024
E.g., 11/12/2024

Encephalartos villosus

Cone forming
Common names: poor man's cycad
Family: Zamiaceae

Encephalartos villosus is one of the most common ornamental dwarf cycads in southern Africa. It is shade-loving and produces leaves which spread out...

25 / 04 / 2005 | John Winter | Kirstenbosch NBG
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Encephalartos woodii

Encephalartos woodii at Kirstenbosch
Common names: Wood's Cycad (Eng.); Wood-se-broodboom (Afr.)
Family: Zamiaceae

Encephalartos woodii is famous for being extinct in nature, and for the fact that there is no known female specimen on Earth....

20 / 05 / 2002 | Alice Notten | Kirstenbosch NBG
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Englerophytum magalismontanum

Fruit. Photo: Geoff Nichols
Common names: Transvaal milkplum (Eng.); stamvrug (Afr.), motlhatswa (Tswana); mohlatswa (Northern Sotho); munombelo (Venda); amanumbela (Zulu); umnumbela (Swati) O
Family: Sapotaceae

This species is better known by its Afrikaans name, stamvrug and is one of South Africa's more popular veld fruits, a thirst quencher to...

24 / 02 / 2003 | K Behr | Pretoria NBG
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Englerophytum natalense

Fruits and leaves.Image Geoff Nichols
Common names: Natal or silverleaf milkplum (Eng.); Natalmelkpruim (Afr.); umThongwane (isiZulu, isiXhosa); ithunga, umThungwane (isiXhosa); umTjongane (isiSwati)
Family: Sapotaceae

An attractive garden plant, a tree with edible fruit and white-to-cream flowers....

04 / 02 / 2013 | F Nonyane | National Herbarium Pretoria
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Ensete ventricosum

Ensete ventricosum with Strelitzia in foreground
Common names: wild banana, African wild banana (Eng.), wildepiesang (Afr.), motholo (Sepedi), mulala (Tshivenda)
Family: Musaceae

This relative of the edible banana is a valuable landscaping plant. Its form, texture and large leaves with conspicuous red midribs, create a lush, tropical...

14 / 10 / 2002 | Siyabulela Nonjinge | KwaZulu-Natal NBG
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Eragrostis superba

Spikelets
Common names: saw-tooth love grass, flat-seed love grass (Eng.); bosluissaadgras (Afr.)
Family: Poaceae

  The large, flat, attractive spikelets on inflorescences that occur well above the basal tuft of leaves make this one of the easiest Eragrostis...

18 / 07 / 2005 | L Fish | National Herbarium Pretoria
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Erepsia pillansii

Erepsia pillansii shrublet
Common names: Piketberg vygie, Catherine wheel (Eng.)
Family: Aizoaceae

An erect shrublet with striking magenta and white flowers, Erepsia pillansii is endemic to the Piketberg Mountains....

31 / 05 / 2010 | C Cowell | Kirstenbosch NBG
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Erepsia lacera

Erepsia lacera
Common names: Paarl roosvygie
Family: Aizoaceae

Erepsia lacera is an erect shrublet with succulent leaves and somewhat rose-like flowers. It belongs to the mesemb family (Mesembryanthemaceae), flowers...

22 / 05 / 2006 | Van Jaarsveld I | Kirstenbosch NBG
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Erica abietina subsp. constantiana

Erica abietina subsp. constantiana growing on slopes of Chapman's Peak
Common names: Constantiaberg heath
Family: Ericaceae

An attractive heath with densely leafy stems and attractive pink flowers in winter to spring, well suited to sunny rockeries, coastal and fynbos gardens...

21 / 09 / 2009 | Anthony Hitchcock | Kirstenbosch NBG
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Erica abietina subsp. atrorosea

Erica abietina subsp. atrorosea growing above Kalk Bay
Common names: rosy pink heath, wine-red heath
Family: Ericaceae

Found only on the Cape Peninsula, this heath is known to older mountain walkers as Erica phylicifolia. When Dr Ted Oliver revised this section...

23 / 03 / 2009 | Anthony Hitchcock | Kirstenbosch NBG
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Erica abietina subsp. abietina

Erica abietina subsp. abietina flowers and leaves
Common names: red heath (Eng.); rooiheide (Afr.)
Family: Ericaceae

Hikers walking on Table Mountain will experience the delights of the amazing diversity of plant life and the many flowers that are to be seen every month...

01 / 06 / 2009 | Anthony Hitchcock | Kirstenbosch NBG
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Erica baccans

Erica baccans shrub
Common names: berry heath (Eng.); bessieheide (Afr.)
Family: Ericaceae

Erica baccans is a well-known, showy species that produces bright, cherry-pink splashes of colour on the middle to lower slopes of the Cape Peninsula....

18 / 01 / 2010 | Anthony Hitchcock | Kirstenbosch NBG
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Erica bakeri

Erica bakeri. Photo: Chris Burger
Common names: Wemmershoek marsh heath
Family: Ericaceae

Erica bakeri is one of the most threatened species in the Ericaceae family. It is only known from one locality that is threatened by alien vegetation,...

14 / 05 / 2007 | Ismail Ebrahim | CREW
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Erica baueri subsp. baueri

Erica baueri
Common names: bridal heath, Albertinia heath (Eng.); witheide (Afr.)
Family: Ericaceae

Erica baueri subsp. baueri is one of the most popular and widely cultivated of the South African species. It is one of the few ericas that regularly...

02 / 07 / 2001 | Anthony Hitchcock | Kirstenbosch NBG
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Erica blenna var. grandiflora

Image of E. blenna var. grandiflora Photo: Plantweb
Common names: lantern heath, Riversdale heath (Eng.); belletjieheide (Afr.)
Family: Ericaceae

Erica blenna var. grandiflora is unusual in flower shape and colour and these attributes contribute to making South African ericas uniquely...

14 / 07 / 2008 | Anthony Hitchcock | Kirstenbosch NBG
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Erica brachialis

Erica brachialis old and new flowers
Common names: hairy-tube heath
Family: Ericaceae

Erica brachialis is not the showiest of ericas; it is a long-lived, easy-to-grow and discreetly decorative shrub that is well suited to coastal gardens...

23 / 04 / 2012 | Alice Notten | Kirstenbosch NBG
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Erica caffra

Erica caffra flowers
Common names: water heath, sweet-scented heath (Eng.); water-heide (Afr.)
Family: Ericaceae

When walking along a stream or near a wetland on a warm day in spring or early summer, a strong sweet smell is sometimes the first indication that one...

10 / 11 / 2008 | Jane Forrester | Harold Porter NBG
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Erica canaliculata

Erica canaliculata
Common names: channelled heath
Family: Ericaceae

Erica canaliculata is a most impressive species that grows into a small tree that is covered with thousands of small pink flowers in summer. This...

05 / 03 / 2012 | Anthony Hitchcock | Kirstenbosch NBG
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Erica caterviflora

In flower
Common names: honey tree erica (Eng.); heuningboomheide (Afr.)
Family: Ericaceae

Erica caterviflora is a magnificent erica that was thought to have become extinct by the early 1990s, but the author rediscovered it in 2006 while...

28 / 04 / 2008 | Anthony Hitchcock | Kirstenbosch NBG
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Erica cerinthoides

Erica cerinthoides
Common names: fire erica, fire heath, red hairy heath, rooihaartjie, klipheide
Family: Ericaceae

...

13 / 08 / 2001 | Anthony Hitchcock | Kirstenbosch NBG
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