Protea nitida

Protea nitida, commonly known in Afrikaans as the waboom (wagon tree), is either a multistemmed, much-branched shrub growing a persistent rootstock and remaining as low as 1 m, or a medium sized tree with single trunk reaching heights around 10 m (SA Tree List No. 86). The often gnarled main stem is covered in thick and rough, grey or whitish grey bark. It commonly becomes 40 cm in diameter, although big trees may have trunks of 1 m wide. The tree resprouts after fire.

In flower a thriving waboom is an impressive sight. The flowers are usually creamy white, but solitary pink mutant trees are sometimes seen in various parts of the Western Cape.

The species distribution is in the Western Cape from the Cape Peninsula northwards to the Bokkeveld Plateau and the Gifberg, eastwards in a broad coastal swathe to the west of the Eastern Cape, as far as the Winterhoek Mountains and Van Stadens River. 

The habitat is fynbos slopes of sandstone and granite derived soils, rocky coastal slopes from sea-level receiving salt water spray to montane parts at elevations up to 1200 m where winter snow may fall. The habitat population is deemed of least concern early in the twenty first century.

The species is closely related to the summer rainfall species Protea caffra with its pink flowers, but otherwise similar looks. Although the two species are climatically and geographically discrete, the occasional pink flowering P. nitida makes one wonder about things that happened in nature in the distant past of this land (Manning, 2007; Coates Palgrave, 2002; Rourke, 1980; iNaturalist; http://redlist.sanbi.org).