Cotula turbinata ripening fruit

The developing fruithead of Cotula turbinata is here still densely packed with fleshy green and yellow fruit beginnings. They appear jello-like at this stage. The upper parts of most florets are gone, apart from the last few in the centre. Some of the triangular tips of the involucral bracts fold in; insufficiently for being a protective covering.

Once ripe, the head is full of dry one-seeded fruits or cypselae enveloped by calyx sheaths, typical in the structure of Asteraceae fruits. Each fruit has a wall free of testa (the outer, usually hard coat of a seed) but fitted with a pappus or crown of hair, functional in wind dispersal (Manning, 007; Manning and Goldblatt, 1996; Bond and Goldblatt, 1984; iNaturalist; Wikipedia; http://pza.sanbi.org).