Mimetes fimbriifolius is a species of plant

Plant

Plants are living organisms belonging to the kingdom Plantae. Precise definitions of the kingdom vary, but as the term is used here, plants include familiar organisms such as trees, flowers, herbs, bushes, grasses, vines, ferns, mosses, and green algae. The group is also called green plants or...

 in the Proteaceae

Proteaceae

Proteaceae is a family of flowering plants distributed in the Southern Hemisphere. The family comprises about 80 genera with about 1600 species. Together with the Platanaceae and Nelumbonaceae they make up the order Proteales. Well known genera include Protea, Banksia, Embothrium, Grevillea,...

 family. It is endemic to the Table Mountain range in the city of Cape Town

Cape Town

Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...

, South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

.

Appearance

A dense, rounded, multi-branched tree that grows up to 4 metres in height, this attractive and striking plant flowers all year round and produces red and yellow branch-heads and inflorescences. The nectar-rich flowers are pollinated by sunbirds and the seeds are distributed and taken underground by ants before germinating.

Distribution

Indigenous to the Peninsula Sandstone Fynbos

Peninsula Sandstone Fynbos

Peninsula Sandstone Fynbos is a unique and endangered vegetation type that is endemic to the Cape Peninsula in Cape Town. This type of Mountain Fynbos occurs on very poor, acidic soils but is incredibly rich in biodiversity with an enormous number of plant species – many of which occur nowhere else...

 of the Cape Peninsula

Cape Peninsula

The Cape Peninsula is a generally rocky peninsula that juts out for 75 km into the Atlantic Ocean at the south-western extremity of the African continent. At the southern end of the peninsula are Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope...

, this small tree used to be very common on Table Mountain but harvesting for fire wood and the spread of invasive alien plants have caused it to disappear from much of its former range.

Ecology

Mimetes fimbriifolius is the largest and longest-living of all Mimetes

Mimetes

Mimetes is a genus of plants in the large family Proteaceae. This genus, as with other proteas, is popular with nectivorous birds such as the Cape Sugarbird and several sunbird species.It contains the following species :...

species. Its bark is exceptionally fire-resistant, allowing it to survive the seasonal fires that naturally sweep across all Fynbos

Fynbos

Fynbos is the natural shrubland or heathland vegetation occurring in a small belt of the Western Cape of South Africa, mainly in winter rainfall coastal and mountainous areas with a Mediterranean climate...

vegetation.