Medusa’s Head (Euphorbia "caput-medusae" marlothiana): What does it look like?
  • The Medusa’s Head is a succulent. It has no leaves and stores water in the form of a poisonous milky sap in its thick green stems.
  • The plant gets its common name from its appearance: many thick snake-like stems grow from the centre of the plant and sprawl over the ground. In Greek mythology the Medusa was a woman whose head was covered in snakes rather than hair.
  • Small, creamy-coloured male and female flowers grow near the tips of the stems from autumn to spring.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Medusa’s Head (Euphorbia "caput-medusae"  marlothiana): Why is it threatened?
  • Euphorbia marlothiana is Vulnerable.
  • It grows only in a few places in the Strandveld, e.g. the Cape Flats Nature Reserve at the University of the Western Cape, Wolfgat Nature Reserve and Macassar Dunes.
  • This species is threatened because more than half its habitat has been destroyed by urban development and invasive alien plants.

 
Present|Original distribution

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Medusa’s Head (Euphorbia "caput-medusae"  marlothiana): What is being done?
  • The City of Cape Town is trying to get the remaining natural areas of the Macassar Dunes turned into a nature reserve in order to conserve this and many other plant and animal species.
  • At the Cape Flats Nature Reserve, small cages have been placed over the remaining Medusa’s Head plants to protect them from the Steenbok that like to eat them.
  • Unfortunately many of these threatened plants are dying because there are not enough large herbivores in the nature reserve to feed on the large bushes. The bushes are making the area too shady for these succulent plants to survive.
Erica verticillata plants in cages

 

 

 

 

 

 
Langsteel Vygie (Lampanthus filicaulis): Another threatened succulent!
  • Langsteel Vygie (Lampranthus filicaulis): This small vygie with magenta flowers is endemic to the Cape Flats.
  • Find this Vulnerable succulent on the poster in module 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click the buttons to find out more about threatened plants in Cape Town:
 
Cape Flats Erica (Erica verticillata)
Cape Quillwort (Isoetes capensis)
Medusa’s Head (Euphorbia "caput-medusae" marlothiana)
Peacock Moraea (Moraea aristata)
Rondevlei Spiderhead (Serruria aemula var. foeniculacea)