Protea

This is a TERRIBLE image, and I'm sorry about that. Bill and I went to the grocery and I saw this interesting tropical flower in the cut flower department and I took a quick photo...which didn't come out very well at all. I've never seen this flower before. It is a Protea. They had some wonderful tropicals and in combination with some other things, this would be a beautiful bouquet. I just admired this fuzzy flower and moved on. It's a dismal, wet day in the Great Pacific Northwest, so I don't expect anything better to come my way. I am sorry it's not a better image of this fascinating flower.

Protea /ˈproʊtiːə/[1] is both the botanical name and the English common name of a genus of South African flowering plants, sometimes also called sugarbushes (Afrikaans: suikerbos).