Euryops tysonii flowerheads, leaves and stems

The flowerheads at Euryops tysonii stem-tips are here at different stages of their development. The younger ones may be positioned slightly higher, but this isn’t quite clear or consistent.

The long peduncles ensure that the spreading to erect leaves all over the stem-tips don’t impair insect access to the flowerheads. Maximal fruit production never disappears from a plant’s priority list!

Some leaf tips appear entire and tapering to pointed tips, while others seem toothed, lobed or possibly even mutilated by (say) herbivores. As leaf eating won’t be restricted to tips only, on at least some of the leaves the phenomenon must be a natural plant thing, not inflicted by outsiders.

Although new branches may grow from somewhat lower down on the plant, below a certain level there isn’t a leaf left on the brownish grey stems, regularly scarred where the leaves of long ago had dropped off (Manning, 2009; Pooley, 1998; iNaturalist).