Amphithalea spinosa

Erect or spreading, dense shrub up to 1.2 m. Thorny. Leaves simple and elliptic-egg-shaped, flat with incurved margins, silky. Flowers (August to October) in racemes, pale pink with dark purple keel tip.

While Disa uniflora is a symbolic flower in the Hex River Valley, A. spinosa is much more special in that it only grows in the Renosterveld vegetation types of the Hex River Valley and Pass, extending to Witteberg.

Distribution in the Hex

Renosterveld flats and slopes.

References

• 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.