PlantFiles: Snowball Sugarbush
Protea cryophila

I have not grown this prostrate protea. Snow Protea (Protea cryophila) is endemic to isolated sites in the Cederberg Wilderness Area of South Africa. it is a near endangered species. It grows in an area that is 25 km in length at between 1750 and 1900 m in altitude. During the winter, the plants are covered by snow for weeks. A tough plant, the Snow Protea survives in the most extreme weather conditions from heat to cold. It usually grows in cracks of bare rocks. Snow Protea can live 70 years.

The leaves are large, elongated into a spoon-shape and folded through the middle. It usually has 3 to 4 flowers whose flower heads are 60 to 160 mm in diameter. It usually blooms from Januay to March in Africa. Sometimes the blooms take a year to open. The white blooms are surrounded by long and narrow involucral bracts that have dense white-woolly hairs on the outer sides. The fruit are covered in white-hairs.