Yellow involucral leaves of Leucadendron xanthoconus still cover the cones at the stem tips in this photo, bulging around them. On female plants the involucral leaves around the cones of this species are usually greener. On this plant the involucral leaf tips are purplish red.
Lower down the long, narrow leaves are pale green upon the reddish or yellow-green upper stems (Bean and Johns, 2005).