Protea foliosa Rourke

A rounded shrub to 1.5 m tall with numerous straight, erect stems arising from a woody subterranean rootstock. Stems stout, 60-80 mm in diam., erect, glabrous, rarely branched. Leaves lanceolate, oblanceolate or broadly elliptic, 90-160 mm long, 15-70 mm broad, narrowed in the petiolar region; apex acute to obtuse; margins occasionally undulate; coriaceous, surface minutely granulate, pubescent at first, soon glabrous. Inflorescences ovoid to globose, cyathiform, 30-40 mm wide, hidden by large overtopping leaves; terminal but occasionally axillary. Involucral receptacle broadly convex, 15 mm in diam. Involucral bracts 4-5 seriate; innermost series oblong-spathulate, 30-35 mm long, 10 mm wide, apex broadly obtuse, concave; outer series ovate to broadly ovate, obtuse, 7-15 mm long, 7-12 mm wide; outer surface minutely fimbriate; usually greenish-yellow, occasionally flushed with dull carmine, particularly along margins. Perianth straight to very slightly adaxially arcuate, 25-30 mm long; tube 8-10 mm long, glabrous; claws slender with strongly undulate margins, glabrous; limbs 8-10 mm long, linear, apices acuminate, glabrescent to glabrous for greater part of their length but apex thickly lanate with a white or brown indumentum. Style 25 mm long, straight to slightly adaxially curved. Pollen presenter linear, acute, 5 mm long. Ovary obovoid, 3-4 mm long, covered with long tawny trichomes. Hypogynous scales ovate acute, 1.5 mm long. The peak of the flowering season is May and June although inflorescences may be produced at almost any time of the year but particularly between March and September.