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Some varieties grow a thick bark that can insulate tissues. Some avoid the flames by growing in rocky crags or through cracks or depressions in the ground, while others have tough roots that can quickly sprout new stems after a fire has gone through. There is even a specific protea beetle Trichostetha fascicularis, and as many as 2,000 of these insects have been found in a single flower head.įire is an important element in shaping the landscape, and proteas have evolved to survive the frequent brush fires. Others are pollinated by flower-visiting rodents or insects. Many rely on nectar-feeding birds, especially African sunbirds and sugarbirds.
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Proteas use a variety of pollination strategies. Many protea depend on African sunbirds and sugarbirds for pollination
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Proetus had three daughters with Stheneboea (called Anteia in Homer’s Iliad), the daughter of Iobates, king of Lycia. He quarreled with his twin brother, Acrisius, and divided the kingdom with him, Proetus taking Tiryns, which he fortified with huge blocks of stone carried by the Cyclopes. Protea flowers are showy, long lasting, and are typically shades of pink, red, white, cream, and yellow. Proetus, in Greek mythology, a king of Argos, grandson of Danaus. In Leucospermum species, the flowers are produced in a dense group with long, prominent styles that stick up, giving the flower the look of a pincushion or firework. In Protea species, they are often surrounded at the base by stiff, colorful, petal-like leaves or bracts, which often form a cup shape, with mass of one- to two-inch, white stamens in the center. The protea flower is a cone-like head or cluster of individual, long, tubular flowers. Interestingly, they can absorb water, an adaptation to the plant’s often-dry environment to take advantage of accumulating moisture from coastal fog. They can be light to dark green, blue-green, or gray-green in color. The leaves are arranged in a spiral around the stem, usually tough and leathery, and may be rounded, oval, paddle-shaped, or needle-like. The area is also referred to as Cape fynbos, Afrikaans for “fine bush,” and proteas there are often called sugarbushes.Īfrican proteas can range in stature from tiny shrubs to tall trees of 25 feet (7.6 meters) or more. More than 90 percent of them are only found in what’s known as the Cape Floristic Region, in a narrow region of the south and southwestern coastal mountain ranges that is considered one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots. The species in the Proteoideae group are native to South Africa. Proteas are considered to be among the oldest of flowering plants, and from the king protea Protea cynaroides to the tall silver tree Leucadendron argenteum to the nodding pincushion Leucospermum cordifolium, they have the allure of another time. These plants are known for their unusual and beautiful flowers, which seem rather mythological themselves, like blooms from an alien landscape-some can reach 12 inches (30.5 centimeters) across. Proteas were named after the Greek god Proteus, son of Poseidon, who had the ability to transform himself into many different shapes-and proteas do come in an astounding variety of shapes, sizes, hues, and textures.