Protea tenax R.Br.

A low, decumbent shrub with trailing, sparsely branched stems arising from a woody rootstock. Stems to 2 m in length, usually trailing, occasionally suberect, 3-6 mm in diam., puberulous at first, soon quite glabrous, usually flushed with carmine. Leaves linear, narrowly lanceolate to lanceolate-elliptic or oblanceolate, 80-180 mm long, 2-28 mm wide, apices acute to obtuse; slightly twisted and decurrent at base; lamina flat or only occasionally with incurved margins. Inflorescences shallowly crateriform, opening widely, 40-60 mm in diam. Involucral receptacle broadly convex, 15-20 mm in diam. Involucral bracts 4-5 seriate; innermost series broadly oblong, 35-40 mm long, 10-15 mm wide, the apices concave and rounded; outer series very broadly ovate, 10-20 mm long, 10-20 mm wide, apices obtuse to rounded; outer surface sparsely sericeous becoming irregularly glabrous, margins minutely fimbriate; bracts greenish-yellow, sometimes flushed with carmine. Perianth straight to slightly adaxially arcuate, 25-30 mm long, glabrous except for the lanate apices of the perianth limbs; tube 8 mm long; claws hyaline, undulate; limbs 8 mm long, linear, apices acuminate, thickly lanate with a dense white indumentum. Style 25-30 mm long, straight to slightly adaxially curved. Pollen presenter linear, acute, 5 mm long. Hypogynous scales irregularly ovate, 1 mm long. Flowering is erratic but appears to be correlated with rainfall which, although spread more or less evenly throughout the year, tends to have a slight winter maximum. Most of the flower-heads open between May and September.