Serruria elongata, commonly the long-stalked spiderhead, is an erect shrub reaching heights around 1,5 m.
The plants grow hairless, fleshy leaves divided into many needle-like, cylindrical leaflets. The upper leaves are arranged in whorls, still comparatively low down on the plant, as the upper stems have the flowerheads and few leaves.
The species distribution in the Western Cape is from Du Toit’s Kloof to Riviersonderend and Bredasdorp. This picture was taken in Fernkloof, Hermanus.
The habitat is sandy flats and montane, sandstone slopes of the fynbos. The plant is listed as near threatened on the Red Data List early in the twenty first century, its population decreasing. More fires than nature needs for sustaining the fynbos, human development that encroaches on wildlife habitat domains and poor people behaviour recur among the main reasons why plants and animals appear on a list like this.
This List constitutes an ominous, count-down on species disappearance from nature, heralding accelerating stages of diversity destruction (Bean and Burman, 1985; iNaturalist; www.proteaatlas.org.za; http://redlist.sanbi.org).