Protea eximia leaves

The broad leaves of Protea eximia are sessile, i.e. stalkless, lacking petioles and clasping the stems. They emerge overlapping to scattered, about horizontally from the stems, then often ascend or curve in, sometimes to about erect in their upper parts, particularly near stem-tips.

The leaf-shape is oblong or elliptic to oval. The leaf bases are lobed or heart-shaped, the tips rounded to acutely pointed. Leaf dimensions are from 6 cm to 10 cm long by 3 cm to 6,5 cm wide.

Leaf colour is blue-green, greyish or silvery green, the midrib creamy to yellowish. The blade texture is leathery and hairless. The entire margins are faintly yellow, even pinkish and rarely hairy, black in picture at the leaf-tips. The pale creamy-yellow leaf midribs link with spaced, ascending lateral veins that nearly reach the margins visibly (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Coates Palgrave, 2002; Leistner, (Ed.), 2000; Rebelo, 1995; Rourke, 1980; iNaturalist).