Leucospermum gracile old head, young stem-tip

The old Leucospermum gracile flowerhead turns orange from pale yellow, or at least the styles do, after the florets have performed their function of delivering pollen grains from the stigmas down to the ovules for fertilisation.

At the adjacent, younger stem-tip in the photo the softer textured leaves are less green, pinker and downier. They don’t yet have the glandular teeth at their tips flaunted by the older, harder leaves below the flowerhead. The oblong leaves ascend and tend to curve out slightly, their inner surfaces concave.

Flower stems are often reddish on L. gracile but not yet on the young one here.

The photo was taken at Vogelgat near Hermanus (Bean and Johns, 2005; iNaturalist; Wikipedia).