'Climate change killing SA's National Flower, the King Protea', says an article in the Washington Post. "Proteas are named after the Greek sea god Proteus, who could change his form at will. Global warming is heating up South Africa and Proteas are migrating upwards to cooler spots - but running out of space.
South Africa has designated 35 proteas as "endangered with extinction" and 46 as "vulnerable to extinction." Another 76 are listed as "rare." Although kind of alien like, Poteas came not from another place, but another time. They are remnants of the distant past, when Africa, Australia, India, South America and Antarctica existed as one landmass, called Gondwana, that broke apart about 130 million years ago and so the members of the Protea family live oceans apart …
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