Protea pityphylla E.Phillips

Suberect, sprawling shrub to 1 m in height and 2 m in diam., with a single main stem; growth habit lax and diffuse. Stems glabrous, slender, looping or arched, 2-5 mm in diam., terminating in cernuous inflorescences with new vegetative shoots developing several centimetres behind each inflorescence. Leaves ascending to subsecund, acicular, glabrous, 40-90 mm long, 1 mm wide, upper surface slightly canaliculate, apices terminating in a fine, sharp spine. Inflorescences nodding to cernuous, shallowly crateriform, 50-80 mm in diam. Involucral receptacle very narrowly and acutely conic, 10 mm wide, 15 mm high. Involucral bracts 4-5 seriate, glabrous (but margins occasionally minutely ciliate), outermost series prolonged into acicular foliar, appendages, 15-20 mm long; outer series tightly imbricate, ovate acute, 10-12 mm wide, 10-15 mm 'ong; inner series narrowly ovate to oblong, incurved, 30 mm long, 10-15 mm wide, apices rounded, concave and incurved. Perianth 25 mm long, strongly adaxially arcuate; tube 8-10 mm long, glabrous, merging into the claws; lips of perianth claws undulate; claws glabrous proximally but tawny-setose distally; limbs adaxially deflected, linear acute, 8 mm long, sparsely setose proximally, otherwise glabrous. Anthers subses-sile, 5-6 mm long. Style very strongly adaxially arcuate, 30-35 mm long, ancipitous and broadened proximally, tapering and terete distally. Pollen presenter linear filiform, 6-8 mm long, very slightly geniculate at junction with style. Ovary 4 mm long, obconic, covered with 10 mm long, straight, tawny trichomes. Hypogynous scales obovate, 1.5 mm long. Flowering takes place in winter, chiefly between May and July, although late blooms may persist into August or September.