Add some interesting color and texture to your winter designs with this beautiful and unusual protea, Nitida or also called arborea and waboom. This diverse South African shrub, with its lengthy history and unique appearance is a jewel in the fynbos world. It’s the only protea plant that’s large enough to produce usable timber. The name waboom, which is Afrikaans for wagon tree, originates from the wood’s use for wheel rims and brake blocks on wagons. Plus, it’s ideal for creating decorative furniture and it makes excellent firewood. In addition, the leaves were boiled to make a blue-black ink for dyeing.
This awesome protea not only produces useful timber, but its flowers and foliage are prominent and captivating when used in floral designs. Nitida has long, oval leaves that are leathery and fully evergreen. They emerge opaque magenta but mature to a light bluish 'sea-green' or silver. Large, white flowers bloom during the winter and early spring. Each blossom opens from a tidy bud to an impressive flower with creamy-white spike-like stamens with brown tips and surrounded by bronze colored bracts.
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