page_title: Protea nana
section_title: Ecology
hierarchical_section_title: Protea nana / Ecology
caption_attribution_description: English: “A Namaqua rock mouse (Aethomys namaquensis, Muridae) getting dusted with pollen of the Pagoda Lily (Whiteheadia bifolia, Hyacinthaceae) while lapping nectar at the flowers.”
context_page_description: Protea nana, also known as the mountain rose or mountain-rose sugarbush, is a flowering shrub which belongs within the genus Protea.
context_section_description: The plant grows on mountain slopes at altitudes of 400 to 900 metres. It prefers a fynbos habitat, and is found growing on granite-based or sandstone-based substrates. It grows on both dry sand or moist, peaty loam. It prefers a slightly acidic soil as substrate. The fynbos soils where it grows are very phosphorus-deficient.
  Potential wildfires destroy the plant, but the seeds are able to survive such an event. The leaves have evolved to be long and narrow to conserve water and survive the hot and dry summers of the fynbos.
  In 1998 it was still unknown what creature(s) might be responsible for the pollination, and the flowers produce very little nectar compared to other Protea. The nectar is, however, fortified with a high sugar content; the sugars include xylose. The downward-pointing shape, the odd yeasty odour, high sugar content and the flowering time in late winter all indicate pollination by rodents. Animals which have now been recorded as visiting the flowers are, besides sunbirds, the rodent species Otomys irroratus, Micaelamys namaquensis, Rhabdomys pumilio and Myomyscus verreauxii. Each of these rodents were found with this plants pollen on their noses or in their scat. M. verreauxi is the best at climbing and is thought to be the main pollinator. Rhabdomys pumilio, on the other hand, was sometimes found to be quite destructive of the inflorescences in a laboratory setting. In the field on average 20% of the inflorescences are destroyed within a two month period, and this mouse is thought to be likely responsible. The xylose in the nectar can be metabolised by the intestinal microbiotic flora of the small mouse Micaelamys namaquensis. Otomys irroratus does not appear to pollinate the flowers. Despite the rodent pollination, when researchers placed the plants in wire mesh cages to exclude rodents and birds but allow access to insects, the plants were still able to set seed in appreciable amounts, something which was not the case when insects were excluded as well, indicating rodents are usually only partially responsible for pollinating this species.
caption: A potential pollinator of Protea nana, the Namaqua rock mouse, feeding on nectar of Whiteheadia bifolia
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