Protea denticulata Rourke

A low, dense, much branched shrub to 1 m in height, up to 2 m in diam. Stems developing from a subterranean rootstock; stout and woody, 10-15 mm in diam., erect or slightly twisted, covered with prominent leaf scars. Leaves densely ascending, linear-canaliculate, 150-250 mm long, 5-8 mm wide, apex acuminate, often uncinate, petiolar region terete; covered with soft silky trichomes at first, becoming glabrous with a few trichomes on the channelled surface; texture hard and wiry, surface densely covered with horny denticles. Inflorescences sessile, ovoid, 40-50 mm long, 3.5-4 cm wide. Involucral receptacle narrowly conic-acuminate, 15-20 mm in height, 8-13 mm wide at base. Involucral bracts 6-7 seriate; the innermost narrowly oblong to linear, 30-40 mm long, 4-6 mm wide, apex rounded, concave, margins thickly fimbriate; thereafter grading from oblong to narrowly ovate of the outerseries, 13-i5 mmlong,6-7 mm wide; outer surface of bracts dull reddish-carmine, covered with a thick velutinous indumentum; bract margins sharply delimited, chestnut brown. Perianth 25-35 mm long, slightly curved adaxially; limbs linear, 1-1.2 cm long, softly sericeous, apices acuminate, crinite; claws glabrous on outer surface but thickly fringed with long silky trichomes on the inner margins; tube glabrous, 8-10 mm long. Anthers 4, subsessile, terminated by a saggitate apical boss. Style adaxially arcuate, 25-35 mm long, tapering subterminally. Pollen presenter linear-filiform, 6 mm long, scarcely differentiated from the style. Hypogynous scales irregularly ovate, 1 mm long. There is a brief, well-defined flowering season from mid-August until the end of October.