Caperoses Cliffortia of the Cape Peninsula
A quick guide to Peninsula Cliffortias.
Key to species of Cliffortia on the Cape Peninsula and Cape Flats area.
Christopher Whitehouse, June 2018
A pdf can be downloaded here: ...more ↓
Cliffortia intermedia
Diagnostics: fine leaves, 8–13 mm long, 0.5–1mm wide, either curved outwards or inwards, fruit dark reddish brown with many, 12–25, ribs
Habitat: fynbos on sandstone
Notes: easily confusable and possibly hybridises with C. dodecandra, best distinguished by fruit
Climbers Friend
Diagnostics: tough unifoliate pointed leaves, 9–15 mm long, forming short shoots unlike C. theodori-friesii
Habitat: fynbos on sandstone
Notes: Common, etc. frequently hybridises with other species: C. theodori-friesii all over Table Mt, C. integerrima at King's Blockhouse, C. odorata at Maclear's Beacon,C. polygonifolia in Platteklip Gorge
Cliffortia atrata
Diagnostics: fine leaves, 8–13 mm long, 0.5–1mm wide, either curved outwards or inwards, fruit dark reddish brown with many, 12–25, ribs
Habitat: fynbos on sandstone
Notes: easily confusable and possibly hybridises with C. dodecandra, best distinguished by fruit
Cliffortia carinata
Diagnostics: greyish glabrous and smooth elliptic leaved species, 4–8 mm long
Habitat: fynbos on sandstone
Notes: intermediates with C. obcordata commonly found around Miller's Point, similar species found away from the Peninsula and are very difficult to separate out.
Cliffortia dodecandra
Diagnostics: robust leaves, 9–13 mm long, 1–1.5 mm wide, always curved outwards, sometimes with a few hairs on the midrib beneath, fruit
dull brown, 12–15 ribs
Habitat: fynbos on sandstone
Notes: easily confusable and possibly hybridises with C. atrata, only found to S of Constantiaberg
Cliffortia eriocephalina
Diagnostics: leaves densely greyish hairy, 3–6 mm long, margins inrolled beneath
Habitat: high altitude mountain fynbos
Notes: several similar species found elsewhere but only one with densely greyish hairy leaves on the Peninsula
Cliffortia filicaulis
Diagnostics: sprawling plants, never erect, hairy trifoliate species, with lobed or toothed middle leaflet, 3–7 mm long, flowers with 4 sepals
Habitat: heavy clayish slopes
Notes: widespread and variable species but easily recognised on the Peninsula
Cliffortia filifolia
Diagnostics: needle-leaved species with relatively long fine, 7–14 mm long, ± 0.5 mm wide, upcurved and overlapping leaves with a very short petiole, fruit smooth
Habitat: fynbos on sandstone
Notes: out of the needle-leaved species it is one of the most easily recognisable because of its short petiole
Cliffortia hirta
Diagnostics: lax habit, hairy trifoliate leaves, 9–18 mm long, small pointed gland at top of sheath on the outside, margins inrolled beneath
Habitat: low lying clayish soil
Notes: scarce species restricted to small patches of natural fynbos left on the northern Cape Flats, point at top of sheath is diagnostic but difficult to spot
Cliffortia juniperina
Diagnostics: short needle-leaved species, 4–9 mm long, 0.5–1 mm wide, fruit with 6 distinctive ribs and transverse ribs in between
Habitat: heavy clayish slopes
Notes: a common species on lowland clayish soil, but very variable due to hybridisation with other species and then the transverse ribs are lost
Cliffortia obcordata
Diagnostics: leaves 3–9 mm long, often pressed against stem, outer leaves larger than middle one, which is usually notched at the apex
Habitat: sandy soil, usually near the sea
Notes: occasionally cultivated and very tolerant of seaside conditions – found near to the Cape of Good Hope
Cliffortia stricta
Diagnostics: leaves 4–10 mm long, slightly hairy, with contrasting brownish stipules, margins inrolled beneath
Habitat: fynbos on sandstone
Notes: very common species, only needle-leaved species with distinctive brown stipules
Cliffortia subsetacea
Diagnostics: needle-leaved species with very fine short upwardly curved leaves, 3–8 mm long, <0.5 mm wide, flowers have 4 sepals
Habitat: fynbos on sandstone
Notes: distinctive with its feathery branches, fruit is also highly diagnostic with 4-curved ribs
Cliffortia polygonifolia trifoliata
Diagnostics: Variously hairy and shaped trifoliate leaves, 3–11 mm long, fruit often reddish, with incurved wings; var. polygonifolia has unlobed middle leaflet
Habitat: fynbos on sandstone
Notes: very variable species, but diagnostic on the Peninsula by its fruit; away from the Peninsula there are several very similar species.
Cliffortia graminea
Diagnostics: grassy-leaved species that grows in seeps, multi-nerved and toothed leaves, 25–75 mm long
Habitat: permanently wet seepage areas
Notes: difficult to recognise as a Cliffortia, looks and grows just like a grass
Cliffortia ilicifolia ilicifolia
Diagnostics: broadly ovate pointed toothed leaves, 9–17 mm long, 7–14 mm wide, forming long shoots
Habitat: fynbos on sandstone
Notes: this and Cliffortia integerrima and intermedia are very similar and difficult to separate; very common E of George but rare on the Peninsula
Cliffortia integerrima
Diagnostics: broadly ovate pointed smooth leaves, 15–22 mm long, 7–10 mm wide, forming short shoots or long shoots
Habitat: fynbos on sandstone
Notes: the King’s Blockhouse population is a putative hybrid between C. ruscifolia and the population on the saddle
Cliffortia theodori-friesii
Diagnostics: similar to C. ruscifolia but only forms long-branches, like a smallleaved version of the Saddle form of C. integerrima, 11–17 mm long, 3–5 mm wide
Habitat: high altitude mountain fynbos
Notes: endemic to upper table where it grows with C. tridentata, but possible record further south at Noordhoek Peak
Cliffortia falcata
Diagnostics: leaves 2.5–8 mm long, with a petiole, outer leaflets sickleshaped, all strongly curved
Habitat: sandy soil
Notes: a similar species is found in the Karoo Mts, C. arcuata, but otherwise the small flat curved outer leaflets make this species easy to identify
Cliffortia pedunculata
Diagnostics: flowers on a long stalk, large trifoliate leaf with long petiole, 10–45 mm long excluding petiole
Habitat: wet kloofs
Nots: only known on the Peninsula from Orange Kloof, easily recognisable if in flower, but long-petiole of leaves is also very diagnostic
Cliffortia ericifolia
Diagnostics: leaves unifoliate, 2.5–5 mm long, underside whitish with inrolled margins so that it appears like a white stripe down the middle, plants erect
Habitat: flats on wet clayish soil
Notes: intermediates found with C. brevifolia, which is a dubiously distinct species
Cliffortia ferruginea
Diagnostics: sprawling or scrambling species with dark green unifoliate tough leaves, the leaves are variable and often narrow and hooked, 8–45 mm long
Habitat: damp patches in sandy soil
Notes: varies widely over its whole range, some forms are used as a popular garden plant for ground cover as it is very hardy of a wide-range of conditions. A pest of restoration at Tokai, taking ...more ↓
Cliffortia longifolia
Diagnostics: grassy-leaved species that grows in streams and by lagoons, leaves the same as C. strobilifera but much larger throughout, 30–65 mm long
Habitat: edge of water or in streams
Notes: a scarce species because of its preference for places near the sea, which are threatened by human development
Cliffortia odorata
Diagnostics: scrambling species with very broad ovate unifoliate leaves, 20–65 mm long
Habitat: wet kloofs
Notes: forms dense patches, covering quite large areas in tangled masses along streams
Cliffortia strobilifera
Diagnostics: grassy-leaved species that grows in streams, single-nerved and smooth leaves, 9–45 mm long, sometimes new shoots have leaves the same size as C. longifolia
Habitat: edge of water or in streams
Notes: very common in rivers in the rest of the Cape, but uncommon on the Peninsula
Cliffortia dentata
Diagnostics: low-growing mat-forming species with soft green leaves, 4–9 mm long
Habitat: fynbos in shady kloofs
Notes: only known on the Peninsula from Newlands Ravine
