Protea eximia (Protea eximia)
Description
Protea eximia, the broad-leaved sugarbush is a shrub that may become a small tree, which occurs in mountain fynbos on mainly acidic sandy soils; the species was very well known under its old name of Protea latifolia. The flowers have awns that are covered in purple-black velvety hairs, and are contained within a series of rings of involucral bracts that have the appearance of petals. The fruit is a densely hairy nut, many of which are inserted on a woody base. The flowers are borne terminally on long shoots, and have a tendency to become very untidy as they age. An upright, somewhat sparsely branched shrub to small tree from 2 - 5m in height and up to 300mm in diameter. The flowering stems are 7 - 10mm in diameter, initially hairy becoming nude. Leaves are semi-flattened to flattened, 60 - 100mm in length, 30 - 65mm broad, oval to elongated oval, strongly chordate at the base, tips acute; leathery, nude, glaucous. Flowers inverted cones, 100 - 140mm in length, 80 -120mm in diameter when fully open, base shallow cone, pointed, 25 - 30mm wide, 15 - 20mm high. Involucral bracts in 5 - 6 series, clearly differentiated into an outer- and inner-series, outer surface silky; outer-series oval to broad elongated oval, 10 - 15mm wide, 10 - 25mm long, tips rounded to acute, margins ciliate, greenish yellow to yellowish orange with wide blackish margins; inner-series acuminate to spatulate, 8 - 15mm wide and 40 - 100mm in length, yellowish near the base to pale crimson at the tips.
Taxonomic tree
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Domain: Eukarya
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Kingdom: Plantae
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Phylum:
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Class: Magnoliopsida
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Order: Proteales
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Family: Proteaceae
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Genus: Protea
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