so the following season. Although an inflorescence contains many hundreds of florets, in proteas seed set in commonly very low, around 10%, or usually less than two dozen seeds. Most proteas experience only little incidence of insect seed predation. Uses This is an extremely difficult species to cultivate in areas with less frigid climates. The seeds require a period of stratification in order to germinate, and the plants appear to need a cold winter dormancy period. Conservation The conservation status of this species was first listed as 'vulnerable' in a 1980 book, but in 1996 the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) assessed Protea pruinosa as being 'rare' for the Red List of South African Plants. Already in the 1990s this species was considered to only exist in the wild as a few isolated populations. SANBI reassessed the species in 2009 and upgraded its status to 'endangered', an assessment that was repeated in 2019. In 1993 it was estimated that the total number of mature plants in the wild was less than a thousand individuals, although the numbers were thought to be stable, with recruitment of new seedlings being equal to those which die during fires. In the period from 1999 to 2001 some 10% of the total population died, possibly due to drought. In 2019 the total numbers of the population of this species were thought to be decreasing for unknown reasons. It is possible that the decline observed over the last thirty or so years may be related to the age of the veld, i.e. the fire regime, although that is speculation. As a serotinous 're-seeder', a species which has adapted to periodic wildfires which destroy the plants by surviving as fire-proof seeds which can then take advantage of the newly cleared and fertilised area to sprout, P. pruinosa may be sensitive to an increased fire frequency in the Swartberg mountains. References pruinosa Flora of the Cape Provinces Taxa named by John Patrick Rourke Plants described in 1977