58. Proteaceae

Above, pincushion flowers from the Leucospermum genus, South African beauties that do well on the California coast. In this case, Monterey Bay. The Proteaceae family includes over 1500 species of mostly exotic looking plants from the southern hemisphere. The Macadamia genus is probably the best known due to their famous nuts. One species that caught my attention while living in Southern California was Grevillea robusta, also known as Australian silver oak. It caught my attention because it was so damn peculiar looking -- both the leaves and mustard-orange flowers. Since that initial encounter I have also noticed them in Northern California. Needless to say this native of the Australian east coast is used as a landscaping tree throughout the Golden State. 

Another example of how strange looking members of this family can be is this Banksia serrata (above and below) that I photographed at the Santa Cruz arboretum. Appropriately the genus is named for the English botanist Joseph Banks, who discovered this species in 1770 at Australia's Botany Bay (part of present day Sydney). In fact, Captain Cook came up with the name "Botany Bay" because of the abundance of interesting plants that Joseph Banks found there. In any case these weird cones are not something you see every day in the U.S.