About

Protea repens, known as the common sugarbush and in Afrikaans as the suikerbossie, is an erect shrub growing in the southern Cape Provinces of South Africa. This species is relatively adaptable and variable and can be found growing widely in various soils. Due to its showy flowers and adaptability, it is a popular subject for use in wildlife gardens in South Africa.

How to grow it

Due to the large amount of nectar it produces, people have historically boiled down this nectar to make a syrup called bossiestroop.

This species is hardy to zone (UK) 9 and is frost tender.

Where it grows

This species grows widely in fynbos on a variety of soils. Like many other Protea species, P. repens is adapted to an environment in which bushfires are essential for reproduction and regeneration. Most Protea species can be placed in one of two broad groups according to their response to fire: reseeders are killed by fire, but fire also triggers the release of their canopy seed bank, thus promoting recruitment of the next generation; resprouters survive fire, resprouting from a lignotuber or, more rarely, epicormic buds protected by thick bark. P. repens is a reseeder, where its life cycle depends on its seeds which may have been stored underground by ants or remained on the old flowerheads.

Other Protea plants

Common Ground Sugarbush · Black Rim Sugarbush · Clasping Leaf Sugarbush · Angolan Protea · Kleinmond Sugarbush · Ladismith Sugarbush · Rough Leaf Sugarbush · Inyanga Sugarbush · Potberg Sugarbush · Shuttlecock sugarbush · Burchell's Sugarbush · Bishop Sugarbush