thistle protea, thistle sugarbush, small green protea, scoly

Protea scolymocephala

Scientific name

Protea scolymocephala is a small, neat, upright, well-branched shrub from a single main stem, 0.5-1.5 m tall. The leaves are long and narrow, shaped like an elongated, flattened spoon, 35-90 x 3-6 mm , hairless, with a pointed tip.
The buds are almost perfect globes, the floral bracts cover the young flowerheads like scales, on some bushes they are completely reddish pink, on most, creamy-green with a touch of reddish pink and on some they are completely creamy-green. The bracts open wide, starting out bowl-shaped and ending up flat or bending slightly backwards, with the tips bending up slightly, exposing the bunch of flowers in the centre. Each flowerhead opens to 35-45 mm across. The floral bracts are hairless, except for the margin that is fringed with hairs.

The exposed insides of the bracts are pale creamy-green and on some bushes the tips are flushed with reddish pink, whereas on others they are completely creamy-green. The flowers are bunched together in the centre, each flower consisting of four perianth segments-three fused and one free, and a style. In this protea, the perianth segments are 15-25 mm long, creamy-green or with pinkish brown tips, and hairless or with bristles on the tips. Together, they form a pinkish brown or silvery white, furry cap in the centre of a freshly opened flowerhead.

The style is 12-25 mm long, strongly curved inwards, with a 2 mm long white pollen presenter at its tip. The anthers are attached near the tip of the perianth segments, they release their pollen onto the pollen presenter before the flower opens. If you look inside the tip of the three fused perianth segments of a freshly opened flower, you can see the anthers. When the flower opens the perianth segments fall away exposing the style and pollen presenter. The outer ring of protea flowers open first.

Propagation instructions

By seed

Seed germinates freely and easily in 30-40 days. Sow in autumn in well-drained soil, cover lightly with clean sand or fine-milled bark and keep moist but not wet. Treating the seed with a fungicide increases the number of surviving seedlings. Transplant into individual containers as soon as the first pair of true leaves have developed. The first flowers can be expected in the second year. Seed can also be broadcast directly in the garden in autumn.

By cutting

It can also be propagated by semi-hardwood cuttings taken from the current season's growth, in autumn or spring. Remove the leaves from the basal third of the cutting, treat with a rooting hormone, and place in a well-drained rooting medium under intermittent mist with a bottom heat of 25 °C.