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Afrikaanse Inligting
Grey Conebush Syhaartolbos - Leucadendron pubescens
This must be the most variable of all the Conebushes. Some plants have hairy leaves, others hairless; some have grey leaves, others green; some have pointed leaves, others round; some have male plants (all Conebushes have separate sexes) with leaves the same size as the females, others have much smaller male leaves (so that atlassers often think that they are two different species); and, some are tall bushes, others short. And what an enigma! Most other proteas carefully store their seeds in seedheads on the plant, or bury them in ant's nests (using the ants of course), so that they are safe from fire and rodents. But the Grey Conebush feeds her seeds to the rats and mice. This means that she must produce lots of seeds! Where it not for a little rat (the Cape Spiny Rat) that thinks it is a squirrel, and buries caches of seeds for a rainy day, the Grey Conebush would have been long extinct. The Grey Conebush was among the first of our proteas illustrated in Europe. But the artist drew its cone as coming out of a Sugarbush head! How much more we know about our proteas today!