Protea repens bushes may not be the most elegant shrubs when they age in tall stands. This happens where fynbos hasn’t burned for a long time. On this plant, grown taller than usual among earlier competing vegetation now given up the ghost, the remains of several past flowering seasons persist on the way down.
The current season’s flowerheads are still blooming at the top of the shrub, while those of last year are firmly closed around the seeds in cone-shaped clasps by their involucres. The receptacle bases of past flowerheads are found among the lower branches, as is a diminishing presence of residual, dry involucral bracts on top of them.
Next year’s flowerheads will be even higher if fire stays away, while the white flowerheads present now will be dark brown. The heads retain their seeds in closed cones until triggered by the heat of a veld fire, a natural part of the P. repens life cycle. The accumulation may continue for up to ten years before this happens.
There has to be fire in fynbos at "the right" intervals. If people start no accidental fires, "the right" solution, albeit occurring at irregular intervals will do just fine. The brown thickly haired seeds will then be wind dispersed onto the nutrient rich ash and await rain.
Some other Protea species also retain dried fruiting heads for several years in this manner (Rourke, 1980).