Plants of the Week

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E.g., 24/11/2024
E.g., 24/11/2024

Encephalartos umbeluziensis

Cones
Common names: Umbeluzi cycad (Eng.); Umbeluzi broodboom (Afr.)

Encephalartos umbeluziensis is a small cycad with an unbranched, subterranean stem which rarely forms suckers. It is a frost-hardy species that grows best...

19 / 08 / 2013 | K w Sepheka | National Herbarium Pretoria
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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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Entada rheedii

Entada rheedii has fragrant flowers in spikes up to 230mm long (Photo Geoff Nichols)
Common names: giant sea bean, African dream herb, snuff box (Eng.); reuseseeboontjie, seeboontjie, boonbobbejaantou (Afr.); inkwindi, intindile, umbhone (isiZulu)
Family: Fabaceae

A perennial climbing vine that is used by African traditional healers to induce vivid dreams that enable them to communicate efficiently with their ancestors....

09 / 01 / 2017 | Lerato Hoveka | National Herbarium Pretoria
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Entandrophragma caudatum

Entandrophragma caudatum
Common names: mountain mahogany, wooden-banana (Eng.); bergmahonie (Afr.); mophumêna (Tsw.); munzhounzhou (Ven.)
Family: Meliaceae

This is a semi-deciduous to deciduous tree, with pale green flowers and unusual banana-shaped, woody fruits. It is ideal for a medium to large-sized garden,...

15 / 04 / 2019 | Benjamin Festus | Kirstenbosch NBG
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Equilabium laxiflorum

Equilabium laxiflorum
Common names: citronella dutch-pipe-sage (Eng.); sitrinella-kromsteelpypsalie (Afr.); ubebebe (isiXhosa)
Family: Lamiaceae

An erect, easy-to-grow, aromatic, herbaceous shrub with decorative, light green foliage, suitable for planting in humid, moist and slightly shaded areas...

24 / 06 / 2019 | Mpendulo Gabayi | Kirstenbosch NBG
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Eragrostis capensis

Eragrostis capensis
Common names: Cape love grass, small heart-seed grass (Eng.), bosluisgras, hartjiegras, hartjie eragrostis (Afr.); baroa, baroana, la-barao, la-baroana, senana (Ses
Family: Poaceae

Cape love grass can be recognized easily because of their heart-shaped and purple-flushed spikelets; the best guide to the identification of species of...

23 / 09 / 2024 | Aluoneswi Caroline Mashau | National Herbarium Pretoria
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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 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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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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Erica 'Gengold'

Erica 'Gengold' (Peter Swart)
Common names: Gengold Heath
Family: Ericaceae

It is not often that one unearths a gem that has developed by chance. The hybridisation of two species of Erica in the Harold Porter National Botanical...

30 / 08 / 2000 | 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 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. 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 alopecurus

Erica alopecurus. Photo Suvarna Parbhoo Mohan
Common names: foxtail heath (Eng.); katstertheide (Eng.); chalbeke-e-nyenyane, chesa-litelu, molomo-oa-lekolo-kotoane (Sesotho)
Family: Ericaceae

Foxtail heath has interesting, leafy branches that resembles a fox’s tail, as the common name suggests. It has densely clustered spikes of small,...

19 / 09 / 2022 | Sibahle Gumede | Millennium Seed Bank Partnership
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Erica amoena

Erica amoena
Common names: feathery heath (Eng.)
Family: Ericaceae

Erica amoena is a fairly lanky little shrub, growing in marshy and swampy areas on the Cape Peninsula, where it is rare and endemic, which makes it special....

29 / 11 / 2021 | Kamogelo Solomon Modimola | Kirstenbosch NBG
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Erica annectens

Bush in flower
Common names: cliff-hanger heath
Family: Ericaceae

This late summer flowering erica  is only found on the Cape Peninsula....

29 / 12 / 2014 | Julia September | Millennium Seed Bank Partnership
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