Fandango’s Flashback Friday — May 14

Fandango asks if you would like to expose your newer readers to some of you earlier posts that they might never have seen?

This post was originally published on 14 May 2015

Protea /ˈproʊtiːə/ is both the botanical name and the English common name of a genus of South African flowering plants, sometimes also called sugarbushes (Afrikaans: suikerbos).The genus Protea was named in 1735 by Carl Linnaeus after the Greek god Proteus, who could change his form at will, because they have such a wide variety of forms. The Proteaceae family to which proteas belong is an ancient one among angiosperms.

.Most protea occur south of the Limpopo River. However, Protea kilimanjaro is found in the chaparral zone of Mount Kenya National Park. 92% of the species occur only in the Cape Floristic Region, a narrow belt of mountainous coastal land from Clanwilliam to Grahamstown, South Africa. The extraordinary richness and diversity of species characteristic of the Cape Flora is thought to be caused in part by the diverse landscape where populations can become isolated from each other and in time develop into separate species.Proteas attracted the attention of botanists visiting the Cape of Good Hope in the 17th century. Many species were introduced to Europe in the 18th century, enjoying a unique popularity at the time amongst botanists.Within the huge family Proteaceae, they are a member of the subfamily Proteoideae, which has Southern African and Australian members. Wikipedia