Kingdom Plantae Subfamily Faboideae Genus Liparia Order Fabales | Family Fabaceae Tribe Podalyrieae Rank Species | |
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Similar Liparia, Fabales, Podalyria, Podalyria calyptrata, Cape wagtail | ||
Liparia splendens (locally called Orange Nodding-Head or Mountain Dahlia) is a flowering fynbos shrub of the Fabaceae (legume) family, that occurs in the South-western Cape of South Africa.
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Description
In spite of its common name, this plant is in fact unrelated to Dahlia, and is part of the legume family.
This multi-branching, re-sprouting, flowering shrub reaches about 1 metre in height. The flowers ("nodding heads") appear from autumn until summer. The flower heads each comprise over 15 individual flowers and are orange-yellow in colour.
The flowers resemble those of Protea, as they have adapted to the same pollinator, the sunbird.
The plant can survive the frequent fynbos fires as it has a large, strong underground root-stock from which it resprouts. However it is very difficult to grow in cultivation and usually dies when grown outside of its natural habitat.
Distribution
Classed as Vulnerable on the IUCN global Red List, this plant is found in mountain and lowland fynbos in the Western Cape, South Africa. Here it is found from the Cape Peninsula in the west, as far east as Albertinia and Riversdale.
It has two main subspecies, splendens around the Cape Peninsula, and subsp. comantha further east.