Collecting seed from plants in the wild requires permission as indigenous plants are protected by law.
Removing seed heads from a plant should be done with secateurs as snapping them off allows a greater opportunity for pathogen entry into the plant. No more than 10% should be taken from a plant and not more than 10% from a population to allow for sustainability.
The majority of Protea species retain their seeds for a few years on the plant and are mature nine months after flowering has ended. After a few years on the plant the seed viability starts to deteriorate due to water penetration and insect predation (Fig. 1). Collected seed heads should be allowed to spontaneously open and release the seeds which takes a few days. Some proteas open very slowly so with secateurs, nibble away the bracts to the edge of the seed receptacle (Protea repens, P. scolymocephala).
Viable protea seeds are generally fatter with a slightly different shape (Fig. 2). The best way to test viability is to cut the seed in half, learning as you go. Trying to sort viable/non-viable seeds is often a waste of time as the visual and/or “feel” difference is negligible or the seeds are very small (P. nana). The seeds of P. mundi, P. compacta, P. coronata, and P. magnifica, are among the easiest to sort. It should be noted that commercially available hybrids produce few if any, viable seeds.
