Leucospermum gracile is a low spreading shrub of 30–40 cm (1–1⅓ ft) high and forms open mats of 1½ m (5 ft) in diameter, from the family Proteaceae. It has reddish flowering stems, oblong to linear leaves of 2–4½ cm (0.8–1.8 in) long and 2–5 mm (0.08–0.20 in) wide, with one or three teeth. The initially yellow, later orange flower heads of 2½–3 cm (1.0–1.2 in) in diameter are flat-topped. The flower heads occur from July to October. From the flowers occur long styles with a slightly thicker tip, which together give the impression of a pincushion. It is called Hermanus pincushion in English. It naturally occurs in fynbos in the southern mountains of the Western Cape province of South Africa. Description Leucospermum gracile is a low spreading shrub of 30–40.0 cm (1–1⅓ ft) high that develops from a trunk at the base and forms open mats of 1½ m (5 ft) in diameter. The reddish flowering stems are slender, 2–3 mm (0.08–0.12 in) thick, felty and sometimes later hairless, that trail across the ground. The thinly felty or powdery leaves are oblong to linear, 2–4½ cm (0.8–1.8 in) long and 2–5 mm (0.08–0.20 in) wide, the far end blunt, entire or split in three lobes ending in a thick, bony tooth, and with a blunt or cut-off base. The leaves are mostly spaced widely and directed straight upwards, sometimes at a more relaxed angle. The flower heads have a whorl shape (or are turbinate), are 2½–3 cm (1.0–1.2 in) in diameter, seated or with a stalk of up to 2 cm long, usually at a right angle with to stem. The common base of the flowers in the same head is flat and about ½ cm (0.2 in) wide. The bracts that subtend the head are very narrowly lance-shaped to linear 8−10 mm (0.32–0.40 in) long and 1–1½ mm (0.04–0.06 in) wide with a pointy tip the ends in a small tuft of short hairs and some hairs rimming the edge, the surface softly hairy, cartilaginous in consistency and the bracts overlapping each other. The bract that subtends each flower individually is inverted lance-shaped, suddenly pointy or pointed 5−6.0 mm (0.20−0.24 in)long and about 1½ mm (0.06 in) wide, cartilaginous in consistency, and the surface very thickly woolly. The 4-merous perianth is 2–2½ cm long, greenish at the base and yellow higher up. The lowest, fully merged, part of