Orothamnus or 'Marsh Rose' is a monotypic

Monotypic

In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group with only one biological type. The term's usage differs slightly between botany and zoology. The term monotypic has a separate use in conservation biology, monotypic habitat, regarding species habitat conversion eliminating biodiversity and...

 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...

 genus in the family 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,...

 occurring in the Kogelberg and Kleinrivier Mountains of Hottentots-Holland

Hottentots-Holland

The Hottentots Holland mountain range is part of the Cape Fold Belt in the Western Cape, South Africa. The range forms a barrier between the Cape Town metropolitan area and the southern Overberg coast. The range is primarily composed of Table Mountain Sandstone and forms an impressive range to the...

 in the Western Cape

Western Cape

The Western Cape is a province in the south west of South Africa. The capital is Cape Town. Prior to 1994, the region that now forms the Western Cape was part of the much larger Cape Province...

 Province of 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...

. It is an erect, sparsely-branched shrub to 5m tall and was first depicted by Jean Villet, a Capetonian artist and dealer in natural history specimens, in Curtis's Botanical Magazine

Curtis's Botanical Magazine

The Botanical Magazine; or Flower-Garden Displayed, is an illustrated publication which began in 1787. The longest running botanical magazine, it is widely referred to by the subsequent name Curtis's Botanical Magazine....

 74: plate 4357 in 1848.

Orothamnus zeyheri (after the botanist Karl Ludwig Philipp Zeyher

Karl Ludwig Philipp Zeyher

Karl Ludwig Philipp Zeyher , was a botanical and insect collector who collected extensively in South Africa...

) is extremely rare and endangered and appears on CITES Appendix I. The plants are short-lived with an average lifespan of 10 years and a maximum of 20 years, and are readily killed by fire. The seeds, on the other hand, are long-lived and remain viable for over 35 years below ground, where they are deposited by ants, and paradoxically need summer fires to germinate. The pollinating agent is not known. Marsh Roses grow in peaty swamps and seeps at altitudes of 450-850m. Seeds germinating at other times, suffer from low germination rates and predation by Saunders' Vlei Rat Otomys

Otomys

African vlei rats , also known as groove-toothed rats, live in many areas of sub-Saharan Africa. They live in marshlands and grasslands, and eat the green grass and herbs that grow there, occasionally supplementing this with roots and seeds...

 saundersiae, and if the soil around the plant is disturbed or trampled, then the fungus Phytophthora

Phytophthora

Phytophthora is a genus of plant-damaging Oomycetes , whose member species are capable of causing enormous economic losses on crops worldwide, as well as environmental damage in natural ecosystems. The genus was first described by Heinrich Anton de Bary in 1875...

 causes death. Successful grafting onto Leucospermum

Leucospermum

Leucospermum is a genus of about 50 species of flowering plants in the family Proteaceae, native to Zimbabwe and South Africa, where they occupy a variety of habitats, including scrub, forest, and mountain slopes.They are evergreen shrubs growing to 0.5-5 m tall...

rootstock, has given renewed hope that the species may yet be saved from extinction.