Aspalathus spinosa subsp. spinosa spines

Spines are special on Aspalathus spinosa subsp. spinosa bushes, bearing two references to them in their name.

Only the small side-branchlets end in spines, reinforced as the branchlets lose their growth functions, while some spines do not seem to have had much else to do but being proper spines, prickles or thorns from the start.

The ones in picture clearly do not count among those that weren’t branchlets before (Curtis-Scott, et al, 2020; Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Pooley, 1998; Bond and Goldblatt, 1984; iNaturalist; http://www.worldfloraonline.org).