S. keniensis is frost resistant to This ability to withstand the colder temperatures that occur in the upper altitudes of Mount Kenya is in part due (at least in Lobelias) to the large amounts of mucilage which are contained by the rosettes of leaves which that might assist in preventing the leaf bud from freezing and the reservoir of fluid from evaporating. As well as the nyctinastic behavior of the leaf rosettes which open during the day and close tightly around the leaf bud and meristem when it becomes cold at night; the outer leaves bend inwards and form around the central leaf bud.