Bredasdorp protea

Description:

Protea obtusifolia is a large upright, rounded shrub, 2–4 m tall with a spread of up to 5 m, and a stout main trunk up to 600 mm in diameter. Leaves are upward curving, broadly lance-shaped, 100–150 x 20–40 mm, with the broadest part above the middle (oblanceolate), an obtuse to rounded apex, and tapering to a distinct petiole. The leaves are rich dark green, covered in minute soft hairs when young but hairless when mature, and leathery.

Habitat:

Protea obtusifolia occurs along the southern Cape coast from Stanford to Cape Agulhas, Cape Infanta and Still Bay as far as Cape Vacca near the Gouritz River mouth. Populations used to occur as far west as Hermanus and Onrust but they have been wiped out by urban development. It grows in dense stands on limestone outcrops of the Alexandria Formation, occurring exclusively in limestone or limestone-derived soils, frequently rooted between cracks and crevices in limestone bedrock.