Last week we had the King Protea, a magnificent part of the Fynbos family.

This week we move onto The Protea Scabra, which is possibly one of the most fantastic looking plants I have ever seen. So we turn our attention to the man with the knowledge, Rob…

This week’s installment takes a quick turn away from the medicinal fynbos aspects (although I am serious need of a few buchu brandies to help the babelas today)

This week we are looking at Protea scabra, from a group called the Dwarf-tufted sugarbushes, we have a very nice stand of the scabra flowering after a fire which ravaged the area almost two years ago.  What is interesting or unique about this group of proteas  is that they have underground stems, tufts of leaves sprout around where a flower head will come up, so not your typical flowering protea head.  As you can see quite distinctive.

These two flowering now look pretty different to the pics I have online and those in my books, what I think has happened is that mice have gone in and ruffled the feathers ( so to speak).  I can’t for the life of me find where I read it but these are pollinated by rodents as far as I can remember.   What is surprising to me is that the reference books I have refer to the habitat as montane, which we are certainly nowhere near.   It has been great to see the response this stand has had after the fire, they are flowering like crazy at the moment and putting on quite a show.  Which is also quite rare, as we are used to seeing them flowering around July to October.  Testament to the wet and cold winter we have had that they are flowering later than usual.

http://www.livingfynbos.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=3294

http://fernkloof.com/species.mv?146