Leucospermum truncatulum caught in the act

During the flowering season of Leucospermum truncatulum several wondrous sights succeed each other in the transformational sequence of its flowerheads.

In the foreground tentative pale yellow to lemon green styles have just become erect. Around them the brown buds on the periphery of the flowerhead are still covered, adorned with long, off-white hairs.

The four perianth segments curve back in each floret once the style tipped with its pollen presenter escapes them, disclosing the dark insides at their tips where the pollen had come from.

In the background older styles have turned reddish above the mass of further subsided perianth sections (Matthews and Carter, 1993; Wikipedia).