Protea
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is about the plant genus. For further uses see Protea (disambiguation)
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 Protea lepidocarpodendron x nerifola
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Protea is both the botanical name and the English common name of a genus of flowering plants.
The genus Protea was named in 1735 by Linnaeus after the Greek god Proteus who could change his form at will, because proteas have such different forms.
Proteas attracted the attention of botanists visiting the Cape in the 1600s. Many species were introduced to Europe in the 1700s, enjoying a unique popularlity at the time amongst botanists.
The Proteaceae family to which Proteas belong is an ancient one. Its ancestors grew in Gondwanaland, 300 million years ago. Proteaceae is divided into two subfamilies: the Proteoideae, best represented in southern Africa, and the Grevilleoideae, concentrated in Australia and South America and the other smaller segments of Gondwanaland that are now part of eastern Asia. Africa shares only one genus with Madagascar, whereas South America and Australia share many common genera — this indicates they separated from Africa before they separated from each other.
In Africa no member of the Protea genus occurs further north than the Limpopo River. 92% of the species occur only in the Cape Floristic Region, a narrow belt of mountainous coastal land from Clanwilliam to Grahamstown. 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.
[edit] Classification
Within the large family Proteaceae, they are a member of the subfamily Proteoideae, which has Southern African and Australian members.
[edit] Species
(listed by section: a section has a name in two parts, consisting of the genus name and an epithet).
- Protea section Leiocephalae
- Protea section Paludosae
- Protea section Patentiflorae
- Protea section Lasiocephalae
- Protea section Cristatae
- Protea section Cynaroidae
- Protea cynaroides (King Protea)
- Protea section Paracynaroides
- Protea section Ligulatae
- Protea section Melliferae
- Protea aristata
- Protea lanceolata
- Protea repens (Common Sugarbush Protea)
- Protea section Speciosae
- Protea section Exsertae
- Protea section Microgeantae
- Protea section Crinitae
- Protea section Pinifolia
- Protea section Craterifolia
- Protea section Obvallatae
- Protea section Subacaules
[edit] External links
- Protea Atlas Project: a project to map the distribution of South African plant species, using Protea as a flagship.
- NCBI Taxonomy Browser
