Description
The sight of these giant silver proteas against the mountain must be one of nature’s finest and is one to treasure. These beautiful trees, with their light-reflecting, silky, silver leaves grow in dense stands on the slopes above Kirstenbosch and are unique to the Cape Peninsula, but this species is in danger of going extinct in the wild in the next 50 years if we don’t take care of the remaining wild populations.
Leucadendron argenteum is an erect, well-proportioned, ornamental tree, 7 – 10 m tall, with a stout trunk and thick, grey bark. The upright branches are covered with large lance-shaped leaves, up to 150 x 20 mm, which overlap each other up the stem, concealing the thick branches. The leaves are silver-grey, covered on both surfaces with thousands of tiny, soft, silvery hairs and fringed with long white hairs.
The characteristic silver sheen of the leaves is caused by the hairs. The intensity of the sheen varies with the weather. They are at their most silver in hot, dry weather when the hairs lie flat to protect the leaves from drying out. In wet weather, they are not quite as dazzling, as the hairs stand more erect to allow for free air circulation.
Like all leucadendrons, it is dioecious, meaning that the male and female flowers are borne on separate plants. The flowers are in dense heads at the branch tips. The leaves that surround the flower heads, known as the involucral leaves, do not change colour while the tree is in flower, but they open wider, thus catching the light at a different angle and shining brighter silver than the rest of the leaves.
The male trees are more showy, they flower more prolifically, the involucral bracts shine bright silver and the flower heads are bright yellow balls that seem to glow inside the silver leaves.
Leucadendron argenteum is widely cultivated as an ornamental garden specimen. Its beautiful silver foliage is used in floristry and lasts well in the vase. The leaves have also long been collected, pressed and dried for decoration or as a souvenir. The dried female cones are decorative and the small silver balls of the dried male flower heads are used in dried floral arts and crafts, e.g. to make the body of mice or hedgehogs. In the 1600s and 1700s. L. argenteum was extensively used as firewood.
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