Leucospermum rodolentum flat-topped

There is a stage in Leucospermum rodolentum flowerhead development when the closed perianths stand together erectly like fluffy matchsticks. Still closed over the soon to be revealed pollen presenters, the outer ones are tall enough to give the head a flat top, even slightly depressed in the centre.

It is easy to see that the outer perianths will be the first to open. They begin to veer away from the dense square-head cluster and change colour from dull grey-green to yellow as their tips bulge.

Pollen is growing on the insides of the four perianth segment tips, to be deposited onto the tip of the style, now still the pollen presenter that will wait for the itinerant pollinators to collect their prizes in the form of body-smeared dirt for use elsewhere.

Later, when ready, the pollen presenter changes roles to be concerned with things more feminine, allowing imported pollen to grow down it from the stigma to the ovary. So, not to remain barren, sticky stigmas eagerly collect pollen grains discarded by casual mealtime visitors, blithely ignorant of their vital role: Fertilisation for seed production in another living species known intimately… and hardly at all.