what does prototype mean in clustering?
A prototype is an element of the data space that represents a group of elements. On the context of clustering (e.g. under a leaf), a cluster prototype serves to characterize the cluster, their elements. You can have a look at Cluster analysis: basic concepts and algorithms for instance, taken from Introduction to data mining.

In a more specific acceptation, it denotes an instance of clustering for combined numerical and categorical values, in the spirit of k-means, k-modes, k-medians, see for instance Into the world of clustering algorithms: k-means, k-modes and k-prototypes:


  For numerical and categorical data, another extension of these
  algorithms exists, basically combining k-means and k-modes. It is
  called k-prototypes.