''Protea cynaroides'', also called the king protea (from , ), is a

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...

. It is a distinctive member of '' Protea'', having the largest flower head in the genus. The species is also known as giant protea, honeypot, or king sugar bush. It is widely distributed in the

fynbos Fynbos (; , ) is a small belt of natural shrubland or heathland vegetation located in the Western Cape and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa. The area is predominantly coastal and mountainous, with a Mediterranean climate. The fynbos ...

region of South Africa, that is, in the southwestern and southern parts of

Western Cape The Western Cape ( ; , ) is a provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the List of South African provinces by area, fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , an ...

. The king protea is the national flower of South Africa. ''Protea cynaroides'' is adapted to survive wildfires by its thick underground stem, which contains many dormant buds; these will produce the new growth after the fire. The flower has a long vase life in flower arrangements, and makes for an excellent dried flower.

Taxonomy

''Protea cynaroides'' is a species of Protea in the huge family

Proteaceae The Proteaceae form a family (biology), family of flowering plants predominantly distributed in the Southern Hemisphere. The family comprises 83 genus, genera with about 1,660 known species. Australia and South Africa have the greatest concentr ...

. The family comprises about 80

genera Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family as used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In binomial nomenclature, the genus name forms the first part of the binomial s ...

with about 1,600

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

. It has

Gondwana Gondwana ( ; ) was a large landmass, sometimes referred to as a supercontinent. The remnants of Gondwana make up around two-thirds of today's continental area, including South America, Africa, Antarctica, Australia (continent), Australia, Zea ...

n distribution, which means that it is mainly spread across the Southern Hemisphere, from

Southern Africa Southern Africa is the southernmost region of Africa. No definition is agreed upon, but some groupings include the United Nations geoscheme for Africa, United Nations geoscheme, the intergovernmental Southern African Development Community, and ...

, across to Australia, to

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

, although certain species are also found in equatorial Africa, India, southern Asia, and

Oceania Oceania ( , ) is a region, geographical region including Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Outside of the English-speaking world, Oceania is generally considered a continent, while Mainland Australia is regarded as its co ...

as well. ''Protea cynaroides'' is further placed within the subfamily Proteoideae, which is found mainly in Southern Africa. This subfamily is defined as those species having cluster roots, solitary

ovule In seed plants, the ovule is the structure that gives rise to and contains the female reproductive cells. It consists of three parts: the ''integument'', forming its outer layer, the ''nucellus'' (or remnant of the sporangium, megasporangium), ...

s and indehiscent fruits. Proteoideae is further divided into four tribes: Conospermeae, Petrophileae, Proteae, and Leucadendreae. The genus ''Protea'', and hence ''P. cynaroides'', is placed under the tribe Proteae.

Etymology and other names

The name of the plant family Proteaceae as well as the genus ''Protea'', both to which ''P. cynaroides'' belongs to, derive from the name of the Greek god

Proteus In Greek mythology, Proteus ( ; ) is an early prophetic sea god or god of rivers and oceanic bodies of water, one of several deities whom Homer calls the "Old Man of the Sea" (''hálios gérôn''). Some who ascribe a specific domain to Prote ...

, a deity that was able to change between many forms. This is an appropriate image, seeing as both the family and the genus are known for their astonishing variety and diversity of flowers and leaves. The specific epithet ''cynaroides'' refers to the artichoke-like appearance of the flower-heads: the artichoke belongs to the genus ''

Cynara ''Cynara'' is a genus of thistle-like perennial plants in the family Asteraceae. They are native to the Mediterranean region, the Middle East, northwestern Africa, and the Canary Islands. The genus name comes from the Greek ''kynara'', which ...

''. It is also known as the king protea, giant protea, honeypot, or king sugar bush.

Distribution

The king protea is widely distributed in the southwestern and southern parts of

Description

''P. cynaroides'' is a woody shrub with thick stems and large dark green, glossy leaves. Most plants are one metre in height when mature, but may vary according to locality and habitat from in height. The "flowers" of ''P. cynaroides'' are actually composite flower heads (termed an

inflorescence In botany, an inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a plant's Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a system of branches. An inflorescence is categorized on the basis of the arrangement of flowers on a mai ...

) with a collection of flowers in the centre, surrounded by large colourful bracts, from about in diameter. Large, vigorous plants produce six to ten flower heads in one season, although some exceptional plants can produce up to forty flower heads on one plant. The colour of the bracts varies from a creamy white to a deep crimson, but the soft pale pink bracts with a silvery sheen are the most prized.

Research

The diploid chromosome count is 2n = 24.De Vos, M. P. (1943)
"Cytological studies in genera of the Proteaceae."
South African Journal of Science, 40(11), 113-122. The genome of king protea has been sequenced and published in 2022, corresponding to the first genome sequenced in the Proteales order.

Ecology

''Protea cynaroides'' grows in a harsh environment with dry, hot summers and wet, cold winters. Several adaptions include tough, leathery leaves, which helps to prevent excessive loss of moisture, and a large

taproot A taproot is a large, central, and dominant root from which other roots sprout laterally. Typically a taproot is somewhat straight and very thick, is tapering in shape, and grows directly downward. In some plants, such as the carrot, the taproot ...

which penetrates deep into the soil to reach underground moisture. Like most other Proteaceae, ''P. cynaroides'' has proteoid roots, roots with dense clusters of short lateral rootlets that form a mat in the soil just below the

leaf litter Plant litter (also leaf litter, tree litter, soil litter, litterfall, or duff) is dead plant material (such as leaves, bark, needles, twigs, and cladodes) that has fallen to the ground. This detritus or dead organic material and its constituen ...

. These enhance solubilisation of nutrients, thus allowing nutrient uptake in the low-nutrient,

phosphorus Phosphorus is a chemical element; it has Chemical symbol, symbol P and atomic number 15. All elemental forms of phosphorus are highly Reactivity (chemistry), reactive and are therefore never found in nature. They can nevertheless be prepared ar ...

-deficient soils of its native fynbos habitat. The flowers are fed at by a range of nectarivorous birds, mainly sunbirds and sugarbirds, including the orange-breasted sunbird (''Anthobaphes violacea''), southern double-collared sunbird (''Cinnyris chalybeus''), malachite sunbird (''Nectarinia famosa''), and the

Cape sugarbird The Cape sugarbird (''Promerops cafer'') is one of the eight bird species endemic to the Fynbos biome of the Western Cape and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa. Taxonomy The Cape sugarbird was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish natu ...

(''Promerops cafer''). In order to reach the nectar, the bird must push its bill into the inflorescence. As it does so, its bill and face gets brushed with

pollen Pollen is a powdery substance produced by most types of flowers of seed plants for the purpose of sexual reproduction. It consists of pollen grains (highly reduced Gametophyte#Heterospory, microgametophytes), which produce male gametes (sperm ...

, thereby allowing for possible pollination. Promerops cafer 4

Along with birds, a host of insects are attracted to the flowerhead, such as bees, for example the Cape honeybee, and various beetle species such as rove beetles and the beetles of the huge family

Scarabaeidae The family Scarabaeidae, as currently defined, consists of over 35,000 species of beetles worldwide; they are often called scarabs or scarab beetles. The classification of this family has undergone significant change. Several groups formerly tre ...

such as the protea beetle '' Trichostetha fascicularis'' and monkey beetles. Like many other ''Protea'' species, ''P. cynaroides'' is adapted to an environment in which bushfires are essential for reproduction and regeneration. Most ''Protea'' species can be placed in one of two broad groups according to their response to fire: ''reseeders'' are killed by fire, but fire also triggers the release of their canopy seed bank, thus promoting recruitment of the next generation; ''

resprouter Resprouters are plant species that are Fire adaptations, adapted to survive fire by the activation of dormant vegetative buds to produce regrowth. Plants may resprout from a bud bank that can be located in different places, including in the trun ...

s'' survive fire, resprouting from a lignotuber or, more rarely, epicormic buds protected by thick bark. ''P. cynaroides'' is a resprouter as it shoots up new stems from buds in its thick underground stem after a fire.

Significance and uses

The king protea is the national flower of South Africa and as such lends its name to the national cricket team, whose nickname is the Proteas. In the early 1990s, there was a political debate as to if and how the flower should be incorporated onto the national rugby team's shirts, replacing the springbok. The king protea is also the flagship of the Protea Atlas Project, run by the South African National Botanical Institute. The king protea has a long vase life in flower arrangements, and makes for an excellent dried flower. It has several colour forms, and horticulturists have recognised 81 garden varieties, some of which have injudiciously been planted in its natural range. In some varieties the pink of the flower and red borders of leaves are replaced by a creamy yellow.

Gallery

File:Protea cynaroides 'Arctic Ice' kz3.jpg, Protea cynaroides 'Arctic Ice' a white cultivar File:Protea flower02.jpg File:Protea flower.jpg File:Protea cynaroides 1.jpg File:Protea cynaroides 2.jpg File:Protea cynaroides 4.jpg File:Protea cynaroides 5.jpg File:Protea cynaroides 6.jpg File:Protea_cynaroides_flower.jpg File:King Protea 01.jpg File:Protea_P1010883.JPG, Western Cape, South Africa File:Protea_P1010885.JPG, Western Cape, South Africa File:King Protea bush.jpg File:King Protea flower towards end of flowering.JPG, On Table Mountain, eastern table, near Mclear Beacon

References

External links

*
Protea cynaroides info on PlantZAfrica.com
- from the South African National Biodiversity Institute {{Taxonbar, from=Q1930962 cynaroides Endemic flora of the Cape Provinces Garden plants of Southern Africa National symbols of South Africa