"O look at the trees!" they cried.

Press, 29 March 1980, Page 16

"O look at the trees!" they cried.

15. KING PROTEA

Proteus, son of Oceanus, oracle, and guardian of : Poseidon’s seals, is one of the elusive figures in the ■ mythology of Ancient Greece. Only at noon, when Pro- • teus and his seals came ashore to rest in the shelter of a rock, could he be forced to utter his revelations of the future; but no ordinary mortal could seize him, for Proteus could change his shape at will, becoming a lion, a dragon, fire, water, a tree. Thus the word “protean” entered the language, and .was seized by Linneaus to name the Proteaceae, a vast, cosmopolitan, and changeable family of plants ranging from Africa to the countries of the south-western Pacific. ' In New Zealand, the family is represented only by two trees,, the rewarewa and the toru; in Chile, there are the embothriums, flame trees; in Australia, there are the waratahs, the hanksias, the macadamia tree, the' grevilleas, and many more. But the family is essentially an African one, and its original members, the proteas, have become the national flowers of South Africa.

There are about 150 species of protea, all shrubs, all African; most of them come from the mountains of the Cape Province, on the southern tip of the African continent. As might be inferred from the name, they are a huge and polymorphic race, ranging from twiggy alpine shrublets with thimble-sized flowers to tree-size plants with flowers so wide a man’s hands cannot span them. Some forms of Protea cynaroides, the “king protea” (seen here, in Owen Lee’s drawing, as it grows in the Christchurch Botanic Gardens), are the largest of all, a foot or more across; the species has been called, not

...Robert Bridges (j" London Snow

without justification, “the most spectacular flower in the world.” . t The king protea is a truly protean species, sometimes forming a mini-tree with pale, silvery pink flowers like this specimen, sometimes growing as a squat bush. A form from the Outeniqua mountains, in the western Cape Province, has crimson flowers; others have deep pink ones. There is a form with small flowers, and an alpine variety reduced to shrublet with miniature flowers. .

In the wild the proteas colonise hillsides and mountain slopes, occupying an ecological niche similar to that of the aromatic cistuses and brooms of the Mediterranean garrique, or the manuka, cottonwoods and mingimingis of New Zealand. s

Many proteas have evolved to cope with peculiarities of climate or terrain, and are difficult to cultivate; the king protea, with its wide distribution and consequent tolerance of both high and low rainfalls, is one of the exceptions. It is one of the best-known of all proteas, and where the climate is suitable is often grown in large numbers for the production of cut flowers.

The king protea will withstand an annual rainfall of up to 100 inches. It will also tolerate tremendous summer heat, and its leathery leaves are unharmed by hot, dry winds. But it is intolerant of frosts, and severe winter cold will kill it. This specimen in the Botanic Gardens, then, is exceptional — not just an unusually large and healthy bush, but one growing well beyond its usual limits.