Leucospermum prostratum young flowerhead

The young, yellow Leucospermum prostratum flowerhead in picture has yellow colouring on its hairy, unopened perianths, on the curved, partly freed styles, on the erect styles already free and on the four recurved perianth segments around each free style base.

The florets in the centre of the head are leading the proceedings, the marginal ones still budding. These heads are deemed rose-scented, lemon-scented or yeast-scented in the literature, judged by different noses.

The heads are borne close to the ground, pollinated primarily by rodents. Which scent the rodents recognise is unimportant, as long as they perform.

The specific name, prostratum, is derived from the Latin words pronus meaning face-forward or face-downwards and the word part -atus indicating possession or likeness, referring to the branches lying flat on the ground.

There are some dry, aborted or finished heads near the young stem-tip one at its peak. The species often bears a small cluster of heads that succeed each other, yellow when young, red or orange when old.

Pointed leaf tip teeth are present on the alternate leaves below the flowerheads (Privett, 2022; Privett and Lutzeyer, 2010; Manning, 2009; Bean and Johns, 2005; Andrew, 2017; iNaturalist; www.plantzafrica.com).