Protea is both the botanical name and the
English common name of a genus of South African flowering
plants, sometimes also called sugar
bushes. The genus Protea was named in 1735 by Carl Linnaeus after the Greek god Proteus, who could change his form at will, because they have
such a wide variety of forms. Linnaeus's genus was formed by merging a number
of genera previously published by Herman
Boerhaave. Source
