Erect or prostrate suffrutices, shrubs or trees, up to 8 m. Leaves alternate or clustered near the ends of the branches simple, entire. Flowers in dense heads, surrounded by a conspicuous many-seriate involucre of bracts; bracts spirally arranged, very small in the outer series to as large as the flowers in the inner, sometimes brightly coloured. Style terminated by a linear pollen-presenter. Fruit an obconic achene, with the long straight brown hairs persistent. Derivation of name: after Proteus, son of Poseidon, who was able to take on many different forms; referring to the great variability of the genus. Worldwide: c. 100 species in the tropics and South Africa. Zimbabwe: 2 cultivated taxa. Insects associated with this genus: |
No image of a cultivated species but there is an image of a native or naturalised species |