In The Protea Family in Southern Africa, Colin Paterson-Jones has produced a highly informative and interesting book on the fascinating protea family, botanically known as the Proteaceae. Describing the protea family as “one of the subcontinent’s most charismatic groups of plants”, he states that primitive representatives of the Proteaceae were evident very soon after flowering plants first appeared on earth about 125 million years ago. Recent research apparently suggests that the Proteaceae is close to the base of the evolutionary tree of flowering plants. (See full review in Literature)