in South Africa by William John Burchell and later Rudolf Marloth around the turn of the previous century. Types Stapf designated the holotype of this species to be the afore-mentioned P. humiflora specimen collected by Drummond in the 18th century; it is without a precise collection locale, and is likely lost. In the 19th century the species was collected again by Zeyher, and later the South African Harry Bolus, both in the mountains in the area of Swellendam. Zeyher gives two, possibly three, locations near Swellendam, and he apparently also collected it somewhere along the banks of a place he called the 'Keurboom Rivier', which according to Phillips was in what in his time was the Knysna Division. The original herbarium sheet has all of these localities on the label of his specimen 3676. This effectively might mean that Zeyher 3676 is composed of a number of different plants from different localities (a type series), thus in 1972 the South African botanist John Patrick Rourke, considering the lack of the Drummond specimen, designated the Zeyher specimen sheet extant at the Kew Herbarium as a syntype. Etymology The species epithet refers to its decurrent leaves. Description Protea decurrens grows up to 50 cm in diameter and 60 cm in height. It is suffrutescent; the main trunk of the plant is found burrowing below the ground like a thick root, sending up a number of branches which can grow from prostrate on the ground to ascending. The plant flowers from the base of these branches at ground level. The linear to acicular-shaped leaves are 1.4mm in width, but in length. The leaves are glabrous, end in a point, and are shortly decurrent: their bases partially clasp the stem. It blooms in the winter, from July to August, sometimes extending into October. The inflorescences, or more specifically pseudanthia (also called 'flower heads'), are lateral, budding from the sides of the stems as opposed to at their tops, and are solitary or clustered in often large groups. Usually a plant with multiple of such clusters will have only one of these in flower, with the other clusters still budding. The inflorescence is long, and around in diameter. When young they are obovoid and obtuse in shape. The flower head contracts toward the base, this constricted part is a peduncle up to long, formed of scaly stipes. The involucral bracts are arranged in a series