or up to three metres in height, and three metres wide. It has been called "mid-sized" for a Protea. The branches all arise from a single, central, branched, subterranean stem. These branches are erect-growing according to some sources, or, according to the original description, grow just above the ground. The upper, younger part of the branches are clothed in fine hairs. The length of a generation in this species is estimated to be around 20 years. It is quite fast-growing, and in cultivation the first flowers can appear after the plant is two years old. Leaves The leaves are glossy, olive-green in colour, and are spotted with tiny black points. Their shape is linear to narrowly oblong, or also described as linear to narrowly oblanceolate, attenuated on the lower part, with an acute but callous end. They are in length and broad. The leaves have prominent veins on both sides, with lateral nerves that run into a narrow, somewhat thickened band along the margin. The leaves are usually glabrous, but may have an indumentum of fine hairs at and around their bases. Flowers It blooms in the Winter, specifically primarily from June to August in most of its native South Africa, but sometimes into Spring on the Cape Peninsula. The flowers are clustered together in a pseudanthium, a special type of inflorescence, which is also called a flower head. In this species this structure will grow up to in length by in diameter, although the original description gives a length of and diameter of . It is almost round in shape, has a rounded base, and lacks a peduncle (i.e. it is sessile). The flower head is surrounded by petal-like appendages called 'involucral bracts'. The bracts are often pink, but forms with white-coloured bracts exist, as do red- and yellow-coloured forms. The colour range has been described as "cream-coloured to deep carmine", or "dark chestnut-brown" for the outer bracts in the original description (possibly based on dried herbarium material). The outer bracts are ovate in shape, with their ends obtuse (blunt) to somewhat obtuse, and when very young are covered in a layer of greyish, finely pubescent hairs, with the margins of the bracts being ciliate (i.e. fringed with a hairs like an eyelash), although this soon falls off and they become glabrous. The inner bracts are oblong and elongated in shape and their ends are obtuse; they are just