Return to Winter

It has been really cold all day with heavy showers passing through. I had my Spin Class this afternoon and just as I left the rain come down. It was so heavy the windscreen wipers could hardly keep up. With in a few minutes it was sunny again. At my friends place she hadn't had any rain at all.

After class my friend wanted to look at a antique shop near the Gym so we left the car and had a walk along to it. On the way we passed by this wonderful Leucadendron shinning in the light. The colours looked so beautiful. My friend has put two lovely antique vases on hold as she fall in love with them.. I did too!


About Leucadendrons
Leucadendron is a genus of about 80 species of flowering plants in the family Proteaceae, endemic to South Africa, where they are a prominent part of the fynbos ecoregion and vegetation type.

Species in the genus Leucadendron are small trees of shrubs that are erect or creeping. All are evergreen. The leaves are largely elliptical, sometimes needle-like, spirally arranged, simple, entire, and usually green, often covered with a waxy bloom, and in the case of the Silvertree, with a distinct silvery tone produced by dense, straight, silky hairs. This inspired the generic name Leucadendron, which literally means "white tree".

The flowers are produced in dense inflorescences at the branch tips; plants are dioecious, with separate male and female plants.

The seed heads, or infructescences, of Leucadendron are woody cone-like structures. This gave rise to their generic common name cone bush. The cones contain numerous seeds.

About half the species store the seeds in fire-proof cones and release them only after a fire has killed the plant or at least the branch bearing the cone. Many such species hardly recruit naturally except after fires.
For more information on the Leucadendron.