with a single ovary, surrounded by four non-showy perianth lobes, each with a single, sessile anther at its apex. The style is extremely wiry, but tough and flexible. This style both offers the pollen for distribution as well as accepts it from pollinators. Before the floret opens the sticky pollen is deposited on a special grooved area near the end of the style, known as the 'pollen-presenter'. The stigma, where the pollen must go, is an extremely small, microscopic groove or slit at the very tip of the style. The floret is structured in such a way as to require that the pollen be physically transported to the stigma, presumably to promote outcrossing, despite the short distance between the stigma and the pollen presenter on the style and the fact that proteas appear to be self-compatible (although many protea are dichogamous/protandrous, the pollen remains viable for several days). As the flower bud grows, but before the flower opens (anthesis), the base of the style swells and eventually ruptures through the perianth. Anthesis, when the anthers and perianth unfold and the style is exserted, is mildly explosive. In rodent-pollinated proteas such as this one, three of the perianth lobes are united and form a reservoir which holds the nectar. These reservoirs may spill and the nectar can pool further below, usually in between the bracts. Similar species Protea pruinosa shares its home with two other species of rodent-pollinated proteas, these three each flower at different periods, which helps ensure that the nectar-feeding rodents dwelling high up in these mountains are able to access these sources of food more or less continuously (there is an interruption during the spring, when there are no flowering proteas here), helps maintain the reproductive isolation of the three species, as well as reduce competition for pollinators between the species. P. scolopendriifolia is the first species to bloom, thereafter followed by P. pruinosa, and lastly by P. montana. This situation is common among sympatric rodent-pollinated proteas. Distribution 92% of all the Protea species are found in South Africa, and this species is among them. It is endemic to the Western Cape province of South Africa, only occurring on the tops of mountains of the Swartberg Mountains bordering the Little Karoo to the north, from the Towerkop to Meiringspoort (a mountain pass). As of 1993, there were only six known locations where this species grew, and five of