Example ⟳ +
An example collection, so you can see what this page does. Nothing added here is kept: leaving deletes it.
Protea afra; photograph Rotational, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Public domainRotational, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Protea afra Meisn.

Proteaceae · Zaïre, Kenya +11

English names not checked: Wikidata's common names were not read for this page.

Add one to my plants
Sow seed

GBIF's records not checked. GBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked. So this page has no points on its map, no map marker, no habitat climate, no cultivation sheet and no species of nearest climate; the range is Kew's. Not a statement that none exist. How.

Protea afra, photograph Marco Schmidt, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia CommonsProtea afra, photograph Paul venter, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsProtea afra, photograph Paul venter, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsProtea afra, photograph Paul venter, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsProtea afra, photograph Ton Rulkens from Mozambique, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia CommonsProtea afra, photograph JMK, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons 12 photographs ›

Summary

Protea afra (sometimes called the common protea), native to Africa, inhabiting from South Africa to Kenya, is a small tree or shrub which occurs in subtropical open or wooded grassland, usually on rocky ridges. Its leaves are leathery and hairless. The flower head is solitary or in clusters of 3 or 4 with the involucral bracts a pale red, pink or cream colour. The fruit is a densely hairy nut. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Protea afra", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Protea

Protea is a genus of South African flowering plants, also called sugarbushes. It is the type genus of the Proteaceae family.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Protea", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Not checked: GBIF's records were not asked (why, under the name), and the habitat climate is read only from them, so no sheet is derived.

Climate across the habitat

Not checked. GBIF's records were not asked (why, under the name), and the habitat climate is read only from them, so none is derived here. This is not a statement that no climate exists.

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP.
Records not checked: GBIF's records were not asked, as said under the name.
NativeZaïre, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Cape Provinces, Lesotho, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, Swaziland, Northern Provinces · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedGBIF's records not checked, as said under the name: so there are no points on the map, no map marker and no climate across the range; the range is Kew's. Not a statement that no record exists.

Photographs

Protea afra, photograph 1did not loadProtea afra, photograph 2did not loadProtea afra, photograph 3did not loadProtea afra, photograph 4did not loadProtea afra, photograph 5did not loadProtea afra, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: Marco Schmidt, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons; Paul venter, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (3); Ton Rulkens from Mozambique, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons; JMK, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Similar habitat climate Not checked: GBIF's records were not asked (why, under the name), and the nearest habitat climates are read from the climate they give.

Other Protea 33 in the reference

Protea acaulos Protea acaulos Common Ground Sugarbush Photo: CC BY-SA, Tony RebeloProtea aristata Protea aristata Ladismith Sugarbush Photo: CC BY, Ren HoekstraProtea aurea Protea aurea Shuttlecock Sugarbush Photo: CC0, author not statedProtea burchellii Protea burchellii Burchell's Sugarbush Photo: CC BY, André DeschodtProtea compacta Protea compacta Bot River protea Photo: CC BY-SA, Tony RebeloProtea comptonii Protea comptonii Saddleback Sugarbush Photo: CC BY-SA, Suvarna Parbhoo MohanProtea coronata Protea coronata Green Sugarbush Photo: CC BY, Karen EichholzProtea cynaroides Protea cynaroides King protea Photo: CC BY, Ren HoekstraProtea eximia Protea eximia Broad-leaved Sugarbush Photo: CC BY-SA, Nicola van BerkelProtea grandiceps Protea grandiceps Red Sugarbush Photo: CC BY-SA, Jeanette ClarkeProtea lacticolor Protea lacticolor Hottentot Sugarbush Photo: CC BY-SA, Jeanette ClarkeProtea laetans Protea laetans Blyde Sugarbush Photo: CC BY, katuchka all 34 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Scolymocephalus afer. (WCVP, RBG Kew)

IPNIPOWOWikidataWFOWikipedia

The record

Family
Proteaceae
Described by
Meisn.
Native to
Zaïre, Kenya, Tanzania +10
Records
not checked · GBIF's records were not asked: the page has no GBIF key

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
Kew's names (WCVP) kew.names answeredas of 2026-06-04Kew's entry Protea afra Meisn. (plant_name_id 2564216), read from Kew's names file
GBIF species record gbif.species not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
Habitat climate climate not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked, and the habitat climate is read only from them
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22found by Kew's IPNI identifier 705664-1, POWO 705664-1
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild not asked
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
Wikimedia Commons commons answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…