The name of this flower is derived from the Greek sea god Proteus. Proteus had the ability to assume many different shapes. Like its namesake, the protea flower comes in hundreds of varieties, which all have their own unique form.
The Protea telephone plug, sometimes called simply the South African telephone plug, was widely used in South Africa from the 1960s or 1970s until the 1990s. As of 2004, new telephone installations in South Africa use RJ11 plugs (which are sometimes referred to in South Africa as Venus plugs), but Protea plugs are still often encountered in older installations.