Marsh Pagoda-bush

Mimetes hirtus is an evergreen, well-branched, upright shrub of 1½–2 m (5–6½ ft) high, that develops from a single trunk of up to 7½ cm (3 in) thick, covered with a sooth red bark. The stiffly upright branches are initially covered in dense felty or woolly hairs, but these soon wear off. The leaves are set alternately along the branches, at an upward angle and overlapping. They have a lance-shaped to broadly lance-shaped outline, are 2½–4½ cm (1.0–1.8 in) long and ½–1¾ cm (0.2–0.7 in) wide, with a pointy thickened tip, and initially carry some felty hairs and a row of felty hairs along the entire margin, which later wear off. The inflorescences are broadly cylinder-shaped, 8–14 cm (3¼–5¾ in) long and 8–9 cm (3¼–3½ in) in diameter, with a tuft of smaller, pinkish, not very upright leaves. It consists of up to fourteen flower head that each contain nine to fourteen individual flowers and sit in the axil of an ordinary flat green leaf. The outer whorl of bracts that encircle the flower heads are bright yellow with red tips, pointy lance-shaped, 1½–4 cm (0.6–1.6 in) long and ½–1¼ cm (0.2–0.5 in) wide, papery in consistency, mostly hairless but sometime with a few silky hairs, the margins towards the tip with a row of silky hairs, and are tightly enveloping the flowers. …

The marsh pagoda is an endemic species that grows along the foot of the coastal mountains on the southern coast of the Western Cape province of South Africa. In the west, it grows in the wild on the Cape Peninsula, between Buffelsbaai and Silvermine Nature Reserve. Previously however, it could be found as far north as Rondebosch. Further east, it can be found from Hangklip near Pringle Bay, along the foot of the Kogelberg Nature Reserve at Betty's Bay and Kleinmond, Hermanus, and the southern foot of the hills towards Elim, where it reaches its southeastern limit. It seldom grows at an altitude exceeding 50 m (165 ft), except for the populations Silvermine and Highlands that occur at about 400 m (1300 ft) elevation. The marsh pagoda prefers a swampy habitat or the bank of streams, where it may form dense stands and forms a vegetation together with species such as Osmitopsis asteriscoides, Erica perspicua and Psoralea aphylla. Like other Mimetes species, the marsh pagoda is adapted to pollination by birds, in this case in particular the Cape sugarbird. This species sits on top of the inflorescence and brushes against the pollen presenters. Visits of the orange-breasted sunbird are less effective because this species sits below the inflorescence and so largely avoids the pollen presenters. …