CONSERVATION STATUS:
- Threatened.
CULTIVATION:
- Full sun.
- Can sustain drought but in garden conditions.
- Does well with regular watering but must have good drainage.
- Frost hardy.
PROPAGATION:
- Propagated from seed and suckers.
NATURAL HABITAT:
- Eastern Cape Province in Uitenhage district and west of Port Elizabeth in sourveld areas.
STEM:
- Mainly aerial, erect and often develop into a multi-stemmed cluster.
- Stem can attain a length of about 1 meter but most of the time 0.5 meters tot 0.7 meters above ground.
- Stem can be up to 40 cm in diameter.
- Apex is covered by hard cataphylls.
LEAVES:
- Leaves have a silvery blue colour.
- Leaves of plants growing in full sun tend to be more bluish silver.
- Older leaves and plants in shady conditions tend to become green.
- The basal part of the leaf is straight with the terminal part curving downwards.
- The leaflets are lobed with 1 – 3 lobes pointing in different directions.
- Leaves do not shield one another, although their lobes may shield one another at the leaf apices.
- Upper surface of the leaflets is convex transversely with the leaflet margins rolling inwards.
