Home
  Mission
  Overview of Project
  Project Staff
  Sponsors
  Achievements
  Checking, Illustrations
  Upcoming Activities
  Id and  Species Lists
  Protea Information
  Protea Gallery
  Growing Proteas
  Interim Dist. Maps
  Publications
  Afrikaanse Inligting

  SANBI

IDENTIFYING PROTEACEAE: 10. Sunshine Conebushes (Leucadendron section Alata)

Conebushes probably scare more atlassers than any other genus in the family. The secret is simply to look at the fruit. Thereafter conebushes are simple. However, the size of the Sunshine Conebush group (section Alata) with some 18 species (or 23 species and subspecies) is daunting. For this reason it is the ideal group to demonstrate the basic philosophy of identifying species.

It is nigh impossible to remember the features of more than six species in any group. Thus the first step in finding out which species you are seeing, or in committing to memory the essential details of those species you are likely to see, is to segregate the species into manageable and coherent groups. You may use any features you wish, but it makes most sense to group species into those which most resemble each other.

First, check that the fruit are flat and winged, larger than 5 mm across. Also, the cones of Sunshine Conebushes have tightly overlapping scales which seal the fruit into the cones where the fruit are stored on the plant (serotiny) over several years for release after a fire. This also means that fruit are available year-round for efficient identification. If flowers are present, Sunshine Conebushes have hairless female petals which overlap in the bud.

It now remains to separate the species into coherent groups with which our brains can work. Using the table opposite note the following:

* Three species have rough leaves. These are the Clay Conebushes which preferentially occur on clay-rich soils. To tell the species apart note that one subspecies of Ld lanigerum resprouts and all three species have quite different leaf sizes.

* Four species resprout. This is a most useful feature and it is worth memorizing two of these species as they most widespread of our Fynbos proteas occurring from Van Rhynsdorp to Transkei: Ld salignum has hairy cone bracts, and Ld spissifolium (with its 5 subspecies) has hairless cone bracts, often a shiney-red. Use leaf size and geography to distinguish the subspecies of Ld spissifolium. The only other resprouting Sunshine Conebush with smooth-leaves is confined to the Worcester Valley.

Where to now? We have some 12 Sunshine Conebushes with smooth leaves and an erect habit. A good way to proceed is to look for coherent groups. The most obvious is:

* Five species have leaves less than 60 mm long. With the exception of Ld meridianum, with silver leaves and confined to limestone outcrops, all these species occur in the Cedarberg and West Coast (Ld foedum gets as far south as Malmesbury). Each of these species is geographically separated and can be identified by its distinct leaf width and flower colour.

* Seven species have leaves longer than 60 mm long. None occur northwest of a line drawn from Stellenbosch to Ceres. Only one (Ld eucalyptifolium) occurs east of the Breede River. Only four occur on the Cape Peninsula (see PAN 13: 12). It is in the Caledon and Bredasdorp Magisterial Districts that this group is most problematical. Nevertheless, using female head visibility, leaf hairyness and shape, all the species can readily be identified. Be aware that Ld xanthoconus and Ld gandogeri often hybridize with other species!

Thus we have reduced a daunting task of memorizing features of 23 species and subspecies to four simple groups which are easy to handle. Furthermore, in most areas of the south-western-, southern-, and eastern-Cape and Transkei there is only a single species of non-resprouting Clay or Sunshine Conebush (with the two resprouters). It is worth finding out which one occurs in your area, and then, with a simple look at a fruit, you can resolve your identification problems to your only species!

However, the Bredasdorp and Caledon Magisterial districts are not for the fainthearted: 10 species of Sunshine Conebush occur here: two are resprouters and two are rough-leaf species. If you only try, you will quickly learn to tell apart the remaining 6 species using altitude: gandogeri - rounded, red-flushed leaves, hairless leaves and stem, often at high altitudes; substratum: meridianum [silver leaf] on limestone, coniferum [male styles constricted] on neutral sand, cryptocephalum [heads hidden, cones hairy] on gravel, xanthoconus [grey leaf] and laureolum [green leaf, heads hidden, cones hairy] on acid sandstone; and GISS (General impression of shape and size: leaf size, cone size, habit, leaf tints and hairyness).

In fact, the only problem with identifying species in the section Alata is that people are generally too lazy to obtain a fruit. In very few plant groups is it possible to tell species apart without resorting to a hand lens and some disection. Protea-lovers have it too easy with Protea, Mimetes and Leucospermum providing so many easy-to-identify species! 

Back PAN 15