Protea speciosa L.

Horticultural & Botanical History

Introduced to Britain in 1786.  [JD].  ‘This beautiful species of Protea is very distinct in every way from Protea lepidocarpon (No. 674) with which it has been comfounded by Willdenow as well as Thunberg. […] The brilliancy of the flowers depends very much upon the shrubs being exposed to the air and light; such as bloom late in the summer, when they can be placed entirely in the open air, if the weather prove favourable, are much redder than those that open in the greenhouse, in which the green colour prevails over the red.  The genus Protea, as it stands in Willdenow, contains a number of genera belonging to a large natural family, some of which have been distinguished and accurately defined by Mr. Salisbury, in the Paradisus Londinensis.  But Mr R. Brown, librarian to the Linnaean Society, has began to read before that body, a treatise on the natural order of the Proteae, in which the whole family will be divided into distinct genera.  The name of Protea we are informed he has applied to the genus of which our present plant is a species.  We have no doubt but that his arrangement will be generally adopted, no Botanist of the present day being, perhaps, so well qualified for this undertaking.  The Protea speciosa is a native of the Cape of Good Hope.  Requires an airy light greenhouse.  Is propagated by seed only.  Our drawing was taken at Mr. Woodford’s late garden at Vauxhall.’  [BM t.1183/1809].

History at Camden Park

Protea speciosa is marked with a ‘c’ in an 1836 edition of Loddiges’ catalogue held at Camden Park [CPA].  In William Macarthur’s code, used and explained elsewhere, this means grown at Camden.  It is almost certain that it was grown in the gardens around this time but may have been short lived as it did not appear in the catalogues.

Notes

Protea speciosa Thunb. = Protea cristata Lam.