Protea welwitschii Engl.

A multiple-stemmed, occasionally partially deciduous shrub or small tree, usually 0.5 to 1.5 m in height, rarely to 4 m, with a straight upright trunk to 150 mm in diam., stems arising from a persistent subterranean rootstock. Stems erect, simple or branched, 5-8 mm in diam., very densely hirsute initially with white or russet pubescence, eventually glabrescent. Leaves sessile, elliptic to broadly elliptic, oblanceolate to broadly oblanceolate, 50-120 mm long, 15-40 mm wide, apices acute or rounded; covered with a soft indumentum of white or russet hairs, becoming glabrescent later but with some pubescence always persisting along midrib or at leaf bases. Inflorescences occasionally solitary and terminal but usually axillary and clustered, either on old wood or, more frequently, towards the ends of flowering stems; often slightly asymmetric and distinctly pedunculate, penduncles to 10 mm long; oblong to globose in bud, the bracts opening flat, becoming reflexed and widely splayed at anthesis, with styles and perianths apparently everted. Involucral receptacle broadly conic-depressed, 10-15 mm wide, 5 mm high. Involucral bracts 3-4 seriate, sparsely to densely sericeous with a whitish to rusty-brown indumentum, margins occasionally tending to glabrescent; outer series broadly ovate-obtuse, 10-12 mm wide, 10 mm long; inner series oblong to broadly oblong, 20-30 mm long, 5-15 mm wide, apices rounded, concave; widely splayed to reflexed at anthesis. Perianth 30-50 mm long, densely hirsute but extreme proximal region of tube glabrous; tube inflated, ridged, 5-10 mm long; claws very densely hirsute; limbs 10-15 mm long, linear-acuminate, very densely hirsute with cream to rusty-brown indumentum. Anthers 4, sessile. Style 30-50 mm long, adaxially arcuate, glabrous. Pollen presenter linear-filiform, geniculate at junction with style, 8 mm long. Ovary obconic 5 mm long, covered with pale whitish-tawny, 15 mm long trichomes. Hypogynous scales broadly ovate 1-5 mm long. The peak of the flowering flush is in January and February, although flowering may commence in December, continuing until as late as April.