Leucospermum conocarpodendron, early life of a flowerhead

The Leucospermum conocarpodendron shrubs growing in the Kogelberg are all supposed to be of the subspecies viridum, so this budding flowerhead must be the same.

It is tricky to recognise the flowerhead at this very early stage during which the bracts subtending the individual flowers are the foremost feature of the head. Once the perianths are tall, these bracts are hardly noticed and later invisible among the curved perianth sections when the pollen presenters stand free and erect.

At this stage, however, they have centre stage. Pale orange and hairy, the inner bracts have red inner surfaces upon their narrow, strap-like tips that recurve most on the ones near the centre (Matthews and Carter, 1993).