Leucadendron

I enjoyed a visit to a garden today nearby where I was browsing through tables of items for sale at a Church garage sale. A woman offered to another woman there she could pick some lettuce from her garden as she had a glut. I put my hand up and was invited too. The lettuce I have is really lovely. The kind generosity, but my experience of the garden was the real treasure of the day. This shrub does it for me. What a mysteriously beautiful shrub these florets make of this plant that is a native of South Africa, one of 80 species of Leucadendrons I read on Wikipedia that are members of the family we commonly call Proteas.