Arctotis revoluta drooping buds

Soft plant colouring seems to support prolonging the youthful slumber of these Arctotis revoluta buds. The globular, pendulous buds will be woken soon enough to straighten the swan neck curves in their long, white-woolly (and hollow) peduncles. They will behave like proper flowerheads doing their part for the continuation of the species: growing solitary or in small groups from stem-tips or leaf axils and facing the proper way according to their developmental stage.

The basal bracts of the A. revoluta bud have erect, narrow growths veering away from the bud body. The inner bracts are broader, clasping the bud contents protectively, as involucres are designed to do (Manning, 2007; Le Roux, et al, 2005; iNaturalist; http://pza.sanbi.org).