The King Protea (also known as Giant Protea, Honeypot or King Sugar Bush, Protea cynaroides) is a flower, the largest member of the Protea genus. It is widely distributed in the southwestern and southern parts of South Africa amidst the fynbos kingdom. Download high resolution version (1024x684, 132 KB)King protea, Protea cynaroides Image Number K7853-2 King Protea, Protea cynaroides, the national flower of South Africa. ... Scientific classification or biological classification is how biologists group and categorize extinct and living species of organisms. ... Divisions Green algae Land plants (embryophytes) Non-vascular embryophytes Hepatophyta - liverworts Anthocerophyta - hornworts Bryophyta - mosses Vascular plants (tracheophytes) Seedless vascular plants Lycopodiophyta - clubmosses Equisetophyta - horsetails Pteridophyta - true ferns Psilotophyta - whisk ferns Ophioglossophyta - adderstongues Seed plants (spermatophytes) †Pteridospermatophyta - seed ferns Pinophyta - conifers Cycadophyta - cycads Ginkgophyta - ginkgo Gnetophyta - gnetae Magnoliophyta - flowering plants... Classes Magnoliopsida - Dicots Liliopsida - Monocots The flowering plants (also angiosperms or Magnoliophyta) are one of the major groups of modern plants, comprising those that produce seeds in specialized reproductive organs called flowers, where the ovulary or carpel is enclosed. ... Orders see text Dicotyledons or dicots are flowering plants whose seed contains two embryonic leaves or cotyledons. ... Families See text The Proteales are an order of flowering plants, which belong among the basal eudicots. ... Genera See text The Proteaceae are a large family of flowering plants of about 80 genera and 1500 species, included in the order Proteales. ... This article is about the plant genus. ... In biology, binomial nomenclature is a standard convention used for naming species. ... A painting of Carolus Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus, also known after his ennoblement as Carl von Linné  listen, and who wrote under the Latinized name Carolus Linnaeus (May 23, 1707 – January 10, 1778), was a Swedish botanist who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of taxonomy. ... This article is about the plant genus. ... Fynbos (Afrikaans for fine bush) is the natural vegetation occurring in a small belt of South Africa, mainly in the South-western Cape. ...

The king protea is the national flower of South Africa.

This unusual flower has a long vase life in flower arrangements, and makes for an excellent dried flower.

External link

• National Flower (http://www.info.gov.za/aboutgovt/symbols/flower.htm) page of the South African Government
• The Protea Atlas Project (http://protea.worldonline.co.za/), run by the South African National Botanical Institute