About 6km northeast of Bredasdorp March 2006. This is what mirabilis is really about – a whole host of populations from Riviersonderend in the west to well east of Riversdale in the east. From inland of Montagu in the north to a report of these plants on the cliffs shore west of Infanta. Small unglamorous, cryptic, often non-descript, infinitely variable, beneath interest to many wannabees. This particular population of rossouwii is a tiny remnant that survived a massive road building program in the 1970s that vandalised surface rock. Do check those leaf ends!

H. rossouwii occurs as 3 populations WNW Bredasdorp with no close presence of mirabilis. Then it jumps a huge distance to SSW Heidelberg where it also never has close association with mirabilis. But at Bredasdorp, east of rossouwii there are a heap of small mirabilis populations that include some curious variants between stubby leaved and elongated leaved, as also degrees of spination. This population is directly north of Bredasdorp.

These plants are not very photogenic as they avoid light and are invariably tucked away in tight spots. Each plant seems to have its own microhabitat and will look different if grown anywhere else. So it is always difficult to fully grasp or describe some kind of common denominator for a population. In cultivation they grow out of character too.