Leucadendrons
Leucadendrons are proteaceae within the fynbos kingdom.
This leucadendron is typical of the species with the brightly-coloured leaf bracts acting as a "flower", and
the cones.
Leucadendron plants have separate male and female plants, as opposed to normal flowers that have male and female organs in each flower.
The L. Argenteum (Silver Tree) is another well-known
leucadendron, as revealed by this cone on the female bush.
These are seedlings of L. rubrum that we transplanted from the verge of a road
where they were due to be cleared. Normally proteas don't transplant well, but we
did it when the soil they were in was very dry anyway, and put the newly planted seedbags
into a basin of water for the journey home. They then went straight into the
seedhouse where regular misting kept them going until the roots recovered.
L. rubrum has a cone that looks like a spinning top, and it is pollinated by the wind.