Leucadendron

It has been a dreich, drizzly day here so I've taken only three pictures all on my trips around the garden with Blake to make sure he doesn't ingest any dirt, rocks or sticks!

This is a leucadendron--a curious protea which grows on our back slope. It stays green all yearend, at this time of year "blooms" with "dense inflorescences at the branch tips. The seed heads or infructescences  are woody cone-like structures."* The cones contain seeds which in some species are dispersed by rodents. That must be why they thrive in our garden, and provide some nice color on gloomy winter days.

*Wikipedia