Leucospermum gracile dark perianth tips

The Leucospermum gracile flowerhead starts off pale yellow or greenish yellow and flat-topped from the about straight perianths, here densely together and erect.

In bud the perianths or florets appear like matchsticks given their dark tips. The hairs on the dark tips are white and long, more noticeable than those on the perianth bodies lower down. The bracts that subtend the individual florets are invertedly lance-shaped (oblanceolate) with pointed tips.

Once the elongating styles force their wiry yellow bodies through the outer seams between perianth segments, their curves add to the yellow but in new places. The styles break free and straighten, becoming well taller than the perianths that housed them.

The dark stigmas at the style tips become presenters of pollen to birds and insects as food but especially for delivery to florets elsewhere. After this stage the stigmas ripen to perform their female function of accepting pollen from elsewhere for fertilising ovules situated at the lower ends of their styles.

The hairy leaves around the flowerhead are nearly as tall as the perianths. The free pollen presenters stand taller later, given their purpose of frequent touching of pollen transporting visitors. The leaf-tips in picture are red and thickened by glandular teeth (Bean and Johns, 2005; iNaturalist; Wikipedia).