About Serruria villosa (Lam.) R.Br.
Serruria villosa, commonly called the golden spiderhead, is a flowering shrub in the genus Serruria that forms part of the fynbos vegetation. This plant is native to South Africa's Western Cape, where it grows only on the Cape Peninsula and immediately south of Constantia. It is an erect shrub that reaches only 50 cm in height, and produces flowers from April to July. Fire kills the entire above-ground plant, but its seeds survive wildfire. Two months after flowering finishes, the fruit drops off the plant, and ants disperse the seeds by storing them in their nests. Serruria villosa is a bisexual plant, and pollination is carried out by insects. It grows in sandy soil at elevations between 0 and 350 m. In Afrikaans, the species is called gouespinnekopbos.
