Protea subvestita

Protea subvestita, the lipflower protea or waterlily sugarbush grows to a robust shrub and sometimes a small tree varying in height from 2 m to 5 m (SA Tree List No. 98).

The single stem of the reseeder may branch early or higher up later, becoming 30 cm in diameter. The bark is ashen grey, turning black with age. Young stems are hairy.

The leaves ascend and overlap like tiles (imbricate). Leaf-shape is elliptic to lanceolate, curving upwards. The leaf tapers into the broad base of the sturdy petiole; leaf tips are slightly pointed. The young leaves are hairy, old ones glabrous. Leaf colour is bluish green, the young leaves paler. The leaf margins are entire, a common feature of the genus.

The species distribution is inland in the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, the east of the Free Sate and the south of Mpumalanga, also in Lesotho and possibly Eswatini.

The habitat is grassland on sandstone derived soil, often at higher elevations and moist places or mistbelt areas. The habitat population is deemed of least concern early in the twenty first century.

P. lacticolor is similar to this species, but can be distinguished by its geographic distribution, the absence of the outward curving of the inner involucral bracts and the downy white hairs on young stems, grey on P. subvestita (Manning, 2009; Coates Palgrave, 2002; Rebelo, 1995; Rourke, 1980; iNaturalist; http://redlist.sanbi.org).