Cool thread Wellie, only just found it though!
Protea is a genus of flower found predominantly in South Africa. My Avatar is the King Protea which is my favorite of all the Proteas and is the national flower of South Africa. It is pronounced Pro-tee-a (lots of people mis-pronounce it pro-tea)
The reason i chose it is not becaue i'm South African, but because i worked out there for a while in the wilds of the Northern Province on a game and cattle farm working for a horseback safari/riding holiday business. I totally fell in love with South Africa and would love to live there. I even had Protea's in my bouquet and table flowers when i got married 18 months ago!
I'm growing a wide variety of Proteas, leucadendrons (the foliage ones) and one or two leucospermums (the pin cusion Proteas) from seed, i've got 2 massive tray fulls of 1 year old seedlings attempting to overwinter in my draughty greenhouse, fingers crossed!
I tend to use it on other fora too (not all gardening related) but increasingly its already been taken!
that was a bit long and rambling, i apologise!