Protea effusa E.Mey. ex Meisn.

Shrub of variable growth with a single main stem; erect and rounded, to 1.5 m in height, suberect and sprawling with trailing stems or completely prostrate forming mats to 3 m in diam. and 200 mm in height. Stems 3-5 mm in diam., erect, trailing or procumbent, glabrous, glaucescent. Leaves ascending, subsecund or secund, broadly elliptic, oblanceolate, elliptic to very narrowly elliptic-linear, 45-90 mm long, 5-30 mm wide, glabrous, often glaucescent, apices acute to obtuse. Inflorescences shallowly crateriform, 60-100 mm in diam. Involucral receptacle very prominent, conic-acute, 20-25 mm wide, 15-20 mm high. Involucral bracts 5-6 seriate, glabrous (or very rarely glabrescent); outer series very broadly ovate acute, tightly imbricate, 15-20 mm wide, 10-15 mm long; inner series broadly oblong to oblong-spathulate, 30-40 mm long, 5-15 mm wide, apices concave, rounded and incurved. Perianth 25 mm long, strongly adaxially arcuate; tube region 10 mm long, glabrous, but claws and tube merging imperceptibly; claws glabrous but tawny-setose distally; limbs strongly adaxially deflected, 6-8 mm long, linear acute, glabrescent to sparsely tawny-setose. Style 30-35 mm long, strongly adaxially arcuate, broadened and ancipitous proximally, tapering and terete terminally. Pollen presenter linear-filiform, straight, 5-7 mm long. Ovary narrowly obconic, 3 mm long, covered with 15 mm long tawny trichomes. Hypogynous scales ovate-acute, 1 mm long. Flowering takes place in midwinter, commencing in late May but reaching a peak in June and July, although in a few cases flowerheads continue to open as late as September.