The King Protea, widely regarded as a symbol of diversity and potential, is the national flower of South Africa. Protea is both the botanical name and the English common name of a genus of flowering plants also called sugarbushes. Protea live up to their Greek name: The Greek god Proteus could change his form at will, and proteas have many very different forms. Virtually all protea occur naturally in only the Cape floral kingdom or fynbos kingdom. The diversity of fynbos plants is greater than that of the tropical rainforests, with more than 8,000 plant species, about 5,000 of which don’t occur anywhere else in the world. The king protea depicted on the label is a flowering plant. Its flower head is the largest in the genus Protea: the species is also known as Giant Protea, Honeypot or King Sugar Bush. back