A solid black dot indicates where the species is found. Diastella proteoides - Flats Silkypuff is a
sprawling ground cover with thread-like leaves. It used to occur firom Milnerton to Tokai
and across the flats to Somerset West, Paarl and Mamre Road Station. Di prot is now
extinct over much of its Cape Town Metropolitan Council range.
Di prot is apparently absent from Rondebosch Common and the entire Cape Flats as far as
the N7-N1 junction. It has now been atlassed from four localities on the Peninsula: just
north of Kenilworth, inside the Kenilworth Race Course, in the Meadowridge Commonage (a
very few plants only) and in the Tokai Plantation (in two patches).
These forms are far more prostrate with shorter leaves than are typical forms from
north of the Peninsula, suggesting that at least a subspecies status may be warranted. It
must be protected from extinction! |