Blooming against the odds: Proteas thrive on farm far from natural habitat

Protea flower grower Nico Thuynsma poses for a photograph next to one of the Protea flower species growing at his farm in Cullinan, east of Pretoria. Thuynsma is experimenting with different seed varieties to find out which ones can thrive in drier, hotter conditions. His farm has become a testing ground for the future of the species, as climate zones shift northward.
Image: Phill Magakoe / AFP
ON his farm two hours north of Johannesburg, Nico Thuynsma gestured towards thousands of orange, yellow and pink proteas in flower and thriving 1,500 kilometres from their natural home at the southern tip of Africa.
"They're all different," the 55-year-old farmer said of the assorted blooms from the diverse Proteaceae family that has more than 350 species in South Africa, from firework-like "pincushion" varieties to delicate "blushing brides". He picked out a majestic pink and white crown, nearly the size of his head, that has taken four years to reach its impressive size. "The King Proteas are very slow to grow," Thuynsma said.
A King Protea flower at the Proflora international flower fair in Bogota.
Image: Juan BARRETO / AFP
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The largest of the proteas, the King Protea, is South Africa's national flower.
It has lent its name to the national cricket team and countless brands. It features on the currency and is the logo for South Africa's presidency this year of the G20 group of leading economies, which convenes a summit in November.
It is also the country's largest flower export with more than 10 million stems sent abroad last year, worth close to 275 million rand, according to the Cape Flora industry organisation.
Its status offers the King Protea some protection but almost half of South Africa's other protea species face extinction because of pressures on their native habitats in the mountains of the Cape, according to South Africa's National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI).
These include habitat loss to agriculture, the proliferation of invasive alien species and "changes to natural fire cycles", SANBI said in a 2021 report.
"People come to South Africa to see proteas," Nigel Barker, a professor in plant sciences at the University of Pretoria, said. "It's the plant equivalent of the elephant or the lion."
Most proteas are endemic or semi-endemic to the Cape Floral Kingdom biome of "fynbos" that stretches across the southern tip of South Africa and is one of the world's richest flora biodiversity hotspots.
But climate projections predict "hotter, drier conditions", Barker said. "We'll be looking at a completely different vegetation type in the future, semi-desert almost in some places."
"Many species, because they're so range-restricted, will probably go extinct under those scenarios," he said.
"The only solution we have is to cultivate them artificially... in greenhouses or farms where you control irrigation," Barker said.

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