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Classification of Proteas


This treatment follows Heywood

Kingdom: Plantae

Class: Angiospermae (Angiosperms: Flowering Plants – all Plants bearing flowers and covered seeds)

Subclass: Dicotyledoneae (Dicots, all Flowering Plants with seeds giving rise to two seed leaves)

Superorder: Rosidae (Rose Superorder: includes Rose, Pea, Gum, Holly, Spurge, Vine, Citrus, Geranium and Carrot Orders and Families)

Order: Proteales (containing Oleaster, Buckthorn and Protea Families, but more recently considered to be most closely related to other Families)

Family: Proteaceae (Protea Family)

Subfamily: Proteoideae (Proteoid Subfamily – with one flower per floral bract, also Grevilleoideae Subfamily – Banksias and Grevilleas – with two flowers per floral bract)

Tribe: Proteae (All African proteas, except Brabejum – this delimitation of 13 genera is probably incorrect, and some Australian genera probably belong here )

Subtribe: Proteainae (Hairy seeded proteas: Protea and Faurea, vs Featerbush and Pincushion Subtribes)

Genus: Protea (Sugarbushes, with about 120 species)

Species: cynaroides (King Protea, with three distinct subtypes and many varients, however, no formal classification below species has been recognized.

Subspecies: (3 informal types are recognized, these are unnamed)

Varieties: (up to 81 varieties were recognized by Marie Vogts, but these have not been formalized)

Forms: (recognizing forms has not been attempted, several hundred are possible and this is not considered feasible)


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