Telopea R. Br. (1810), the waratah, in the family Proteaceae, contains 5 species in southern Australia.

Description Shrubs to 4m. The leaves are alternate, evergreen, leathery, sometimes toothed. The flowers are in large heads on the tips of the shoots, surrounded by often coloured bracts, borne in pairs, red or rarely yellow, occasionally white; sepals 4, equal, joined at the base to form a tubular flower, recurving when the flower opens; petals absent. Stamens 4, without stalks, attached to the tips of the sepals. Ovary superior, with 1 carpel containing several ovules; style 1, curved, with a disc-shaped pollen-presenter, which picks up the pollen from the stamens as it unbends. Pollination is by birds. The fruits are capsules topped by a persistent style, with several winged seeds.

Key Recognition Features The leathery leaves and the red flowers crowded into a terminal head surrounded by bracts.

Evolution and Relationships Closely related to Embothrium and less closely to Grevillea, neither of which have their flowers in heads.

Ecology and Geography In damp Eucalyptus forest in the mountains; T. truncata (Labill.) R. Br. in Tasmania, the very similar T. oreades Muell. in Victoria and New South Wales, and the larger T. speciosissimum (J.E. Sm.) R. Br. in New South Wales.

Comment The genus is one of the hardier and most ornamental of the family, and includes T. speciosissimum, the waratah.