View source for Protea

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Protea (from Proteus, the sea-god, who changed into many forms; alluding to the baffling diversity of the species). Proteaceae. Tender shrubs, small trees or acaulescent perennial plants, which are among the most attractive and characteristic plants of the Cape of Good Hope, a region whose plant life is singular.

Leaves alternate, coriaceous, entire: fls. in many-fld. sessile or subsessile, terminal or lateral, usually solitary heads, inclosed in an involucre of numerous imbricate coriaceous to scabrous and various colored bracts; ovary covered with long hairs; ovule 1: nut 
densely bearded.—About 100 species, mainly from S. Afr. but extending into Trop. Afr. Their fl.-heads are said to look like a "glorified artichoke." Indeed P. cynaroides (Fig. 3195) is named from this very resemblance. (Cynaroides means cynara-like; and Cynara is the artichoke.) It has bright pink fl.-heads which last several months. The structure of the fl.-heads is the distinctive feature of the whole family of the Proteaceae. The showy parts of the fl.-head are the bracts, which are often rigid, colored, and overlap one another like the scales of a hard cone or an artichoke. "When the heads of P. cynaroides first open," says Watson, "they are full of honey and are known to the Boers as honey-pots." This honey is collected and made into a kind of sugar. The blooming of the "honey-pots" is a great occasion for picnics. Watson saw large bushes of P. speciosa at the Cape, which he declared were quite as effective as big specimen rhododendrons. "Fifty years ago." writes Watson, in 1891, "there were about 30 species of Protea included among popular greenhouse plants in England; now one may safely say there is not one, the few really under cultivation being only in botanical collections." In 1881, Hooker wrote: "That these and many other plants requiring like treatment will be reintroduced, and will be the wonders of the shows for many successive seasons, is as certain as that they were once the glories of the old flue-heated houses that our forefathers called stoves, in which orchids quickly perished, and Banksias and Proteas throve magnificently." Over 40 colored plates of proteas have been published, of which 23 appeared in Andrews' Bot. Rep. between 1797 and 1811.

The interest in proteaceous plants is growing in southern California. Proteads have a reputation for being difficult to cultivate away from the Cape, but Hooker's statement seems to indicate that their culture is not so much difficult as special. Under glass they are said to require a coolhouse which is airy and sunny. "The one great danger to cultivated Proteads," says Watson, "is excessive watering, and to guard against this it is found to be a good plan, in the case of delicate species, to place the pot in which the plant is growing inside a larger one, filling up the space between with silver sand. The latter is always kept moist." It is suggested by one grower that it is possibly not excessive watering that injures them, but insufficient drainage. Many of the species need staking, as the shoots are quick to break off at the base if unsupported. Proteas ripen seeds freely, and seeds can be easily procured from the Cape.
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==Cultivation==
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===Propagation===
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===Pests and diseases===
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==Species==
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==Gallery==
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==References==
*[[Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture]], by L. H. Bailey, MacMillan Co., 1963
<!--- xxxxx  *Flora: The Gardener's Bible, by Sean Hogan. Global Book Publishing, 2003. ISBN 0881925381  -->
<!--- xxxxx  *American Horticultural Society: A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants, by Christopher Brickell, Judith D. Zuk. 1996. ISBN 0789419432  -->
<!--- xxxxx  *Sunset National Garden Book. Sunset Books, Inc., 1997. ISBN 0376038608  -->

==External links==
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