Laurel Leaf Protea (Protea lauriflora) 5 seeds
 
 
Protea laurifolia is a large, upright, well-branched shrub, 3-5 m tall, or small tree up to 8 m high, with a short, stout main trunk up to 300 mm in diameter and branching from about 200 mm above ground level. Leaves are elliptic, broader in the middle and tapering to the base and apex, 80-140 x 10-55 mm. The petiole is very short, 3-20 mm, and the apex is tipped with a short spine (mucronate). The midrib is prominent and the margins are very prominent and heavily thickened. The leaves are covered with minute soft hairs when young but hairless when mature, and the leaf surface is coated with a whitish to blue-green bloom that can be rubbed off (glaucous), giving the whole bush a greyish green colour.

The Protea flower is not a flower, but a flower head or inflorescence, made up of many individual flowers grouped together on a rounded base or receptacle. What looks like the 'petals' of the protea 'flower' are modified leaves known as floral or involucral bracts. Look inside the cup of involucral bracts and you'll see many long narrow flowers massed together in the centre.
 
The flower head is oblong, 100-130 x 40-60 mm. The involucral bracts are a silky silvery pink, or faded pink, or cream, with a thick beard on the inner bracts. The beard can be purple-black, white or mixed white and black. The individual flowers are 75-90 mm long and are also densely covered with purple-black or white hairs. The main flowering time is during autumn-winter (May to July), but flower heads can be found from autumn until early summer (April to November).