Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Protea

Looking through my South Africa photos from last December, it occurred to me that I had not shown any of the proteas from Kirstenbosch, the marvelous public gardens outside Cape Town.


The King Protea grows wild in the western and eastern Cape, and nowhere else.
It is the national flower of South Africa.





Protea are among the family of shrubs called fynbos (fine bush), a highly
diverse kind of vegetation that also includes heathers.


Linked to Ruby Tuesday.

27 comments:

Andy said...

Beautiful photography Jack.

Stefan Jansson said...

Nice snaps of the national flower.

cieldequimper said...

Very pretty. I thought I wanted to go to South Africa for other reasons, now I'll have to add flowers...

Tanya Breese said...

beautiful...what an interesting flower!

LOLfromPasa said...

Glorious colors and so fitting for South Africa. Not to mention: Beautifully photographed :).

Kate said...

It is a fabulous garden and you posted some fabulous images.

VP said...

Great looking flowers, and they look a bit alien to my profane eye...

PerthDailyPhoto said...

Beautifully shown here Jack.. they grow really well here also, they're one of my fav plants to snap during the Kings Park wildflower festival.. such complicated inner 'bits'!

Sylvia K said...

Such beautiful, colorful flowers, Jack!! Wonderful captures for the day!! Hope your week is going well!!

Sharon said...

These are just beautiful and so unusual looking. I'd enjoy taking photos there I'm sure.

William Kendall said...

They're so unlike what we see here. Beautiful!

Magical Mystical Teacher said...

Heathers I know--and now I know proteas too!

Stars and Stripes

RedPat said...

They are so exotic, Jack!

CaT said...

oh, i didnt know that. very pretty!
was it very hot there? i associate such flowers with crazy heat...

CaT said...

oh, i forgot. regarding the tulips; this year (as opposed to last), the weather has been so amazingly good (for dutch standards), that the tulips and other flowers grew much earlier than they normally do...
it was a bit of a problem for the yearly flowerparade that was held this weekend; the flowers they normally use had bloomed already...

Kay said...

These are all gorgeous. California has a lot of South African imports, protea among them. The top and bottom shots are especially wonderful.

Lois said...

Absolutely beautiful pictures Jack!

Luis Gomez said...

Gorgeous!

SRQ said...

Lovely…and so colorful.

Randy said...

Great shots. I love the first one.

Michelle said...

What a beautiful flower.

Bob Crowe said...

Never heard of it, never seen it, and it's astounding. The crown of flowers.

Taken For Granted said...

Great color, and so much green. Thanks for your comment and for the laugh. And, yes there was a profound absence of green.

John "By Stargoose And Hanglands" said...

What a remarkable plant; I could spend a lot of time photographing those!

Halcyon said...

Beautiful! I hope to make it to South Africa one of these days to see them in person.

EG CameraGirl said...

LOVE the detail in these, Jack!

Unknown said...

I remember the amazing variety on the way to the Cape of Good Hope. Gorgeous shots, Jack.