Protea neriifolia leaves and fruitheads

Protea neriifolia leaves are ascending to spreading, long, narrow and oblong in shape. Leaf length varies between 10 cm and 18 cm, the width from 1,5 m to 3 cm. The leaves are nearly stalkless, showing an orange colour at the base in this photo. Leaf tips vary from rounded to obtuse or acute. The leaf midribs are pinkish or cream coloured. Leaf margins, not clearly discernible in the photo, may display similar colours. Leaf texture is hard and leathery, fine hairs only being present on young leaves.

Lower down in the photo two old flowerheads can be seen. Their involucral bracts are opened, curving outwards and partly lost from the structure. In one of them the desiccated florets are still present, bunched in an almost cylindrical structure with woolly tips. In the second, empty one the florets have fallen, the dark inner surface of the bare receptacle being visible.

Peeping out from among the leaves more dry flowerheads are visible, one of which has the involucral bracts still closed, similar to a budding capitulum (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Coates Palgrave, 2002; Rebelo, 1995; Rourke, 1980; iNaturalist).