These were taken the other weekend when we visited Zigzag Railway located in Lithgow on the western slopes of the Blue Mountains about 2 hours drive from Sydney.
Proteas are native to southern Africa and belong to the same family of plants (the family Proteaceae) as the Australian banksias, grevilleas and waratahs. The name ‘protea’ is commonly used to refer not only to plants in the genus Protea, but also to plants in two other genera from southern Africa: Leucadendron and Leucospermum.
The family Proteaceae is an ancient family of plants with a Gondwanan ancestry - it was one of the earliest groups of flowering plants and was able to disperse and diversify throughout Gondwana before the supercontinent disintegrated. With about 1600 species, it is one of the plant groups which now dominate the southern hemisphere floras.
(source: Royal Botanic Garden Trust, Sydney)
Thank you to That's my World! Tuesday team, Klaus, Sandy, Wren, Fishing Guy and Sylvia for this meme. Please click here to see more That's My World photos from all around the world.
4 comments:
Great Protea shots. Hope you enjoyed the zig-zag railway. When we were the re a long time ago, I picked up some lumps of coal for carving.
That is a beautiful very big flower. Very lovely color.
It looks like it is furry inside. Very pretty.
Great shot, and beautiful flower :)
Post a Comment