English: Overberg pincushion; Flame pincushion; Mix pincushion; Tuft pincushion.
Region: South Africa, Western Cape province.
Habitat: fynbos.
BotanyErect shrub; 1 m high, 1½ m across.
Stem: spreading branches.
Leaves, densel; initially felty, entire, oval, olive-colored of about 3½ cm long and 1½ cm wide, with a bony tip that sometimes has two to five blunt teeth, with a blunt base and conspicuous veins.
Inflorescences: cup-shaped; 4 cm in diameter, crowded at the tip of the branches; with maximum of five flowers, flowering in turn; floral base is flat, 12 mm in diameter, covered below by felty to hairless, papery, egg-shaped, long pointed, overlapping involucral bracts of 9 to 36 mm long and 5 to 7 mm wide, sometimes with a tuft of long hairs at its tip.
Flowers: initially sulfur yellow, soon orange, finally brilliant crimson; styles long thread-like; blooming from August till December; papery bracts at the base, very narrowly lance-shaped, 1 to 3 cm long, wooly near the base and softly hairy towards the tip; straight tube of about 2 cm long, slightly transparent, initially whitish-transparent to pale yellowish green, yellow when opening, quickly becoming orange and turning bright crimson with age; cylindrical, hairless tube of 8 mm, widens towards the top; 4 thread-shaped lobes, strongly curled on itself; styles strongly arched like a swan's neck, straighten and grow quickly to a thread of ± 3 cm long, at first pale yellow but turning crimson when fully developed; pollen-presenter, a slight thickening at the tip of the style is cylindrical, thread-like; stigma a groove across the tip of the pollen-presenter; ovary has 4 blunt thread-like opaque scales.
Fruit: ellipsoid; ± 7 mm long; thinly covered with a fine powder.