Protea repens delivering water and nectar

Protea repens is famous for its copious sugary nectar, the valued syrup enticing pollinators and people to the base of the flowerheads. The advertisement placed on this one is different though, focussing on what is at the top, not the bottom. Style tips, the pollen presenters, are here covered in raindrops, the cloud juice increasingly on people’s minds in the twenty first century. A bird can catch a drop here, shaking the other drops off in the process. People need more, presented differently.

The famous Afrikaans song of “Suikerbos” (sugar bush) referring to this plant is just one of its kind, compared to many songs about water. Granted, they are not all about drinking water. As the reality of humanity’s increasing challenge of finding enough clean drinking water hits home in many parts of the world, the lyrics of future songs may develop this theme. Such songs will remind that more effort is required to fulfil a key need of our time, and our future.