Mimetes cucullates

A little bit ago I blogged about the crazy Australian plants at UC-Santa Cruz’s Arboretum. Now it’s time for the South Africa section. This guy above is a super crazy rare. According to tests, they only have a 4-5% germination rate. Check out plantzafrica.com for more info, and Annie’s if you want to put one on your wishlist. They sound pretty easy to grow if you live in sandy soil land.

Protea nitida

The Proteas were doing their thing. I love Protea nitida’s Afrikaans common name waboom. The wood was used for the break blocks and wheel rims for wagons back in the day. Makes sense. There’s more cool info at always awesome plantzafrica.com.

Protea neriifolia 'Rose Mink'

I’m confused. When I googled Protea neriifolia ‘Rose Mink’ a bunch of results for Protea laurifolia ‘Rose Mink’ popped up that look kind of the same. Annie’s has a Protea neriifolia that looks a lot like the above flower too. I did a little reading about the two species, and it all comes down to the leaves. Here’s what plantzafrica.com has to say about the confusion, “They can be told apart by their foliage: P. laurifolia leaves are elliptic (broader in the middle) and have heavily thickened, horny margins and a grey bloom that can be rubbed off, whereas those of P. neriifolia are dark to bright green and narrowly oblong with margins that are parallel for most of their length, and are not heavily thickened and don’t have a greyish bloom.”

Phylica pubescens

I have an unnatural obsession with this furry creature from the Rhamnaceae family. Ever since I saw it at Strybing last September I’ve been in love. My little furball came home with me from Annie’s a few weeks ago (I call it precious).

Leucadendron salignum x laureolum 'Rising Sun'

Leucadendron 'Inca Gold'

There were mass quantities of awesome Leucadendrons doing their thing all over the place. You can check out all of our South African pics here. Happy Sunday!