Othonna ramulosa old involucres

The smooth, cup-shaped Othonna ramulosa involucres have their single rings of involucral bracts cohering firmly around the withering florets. There are about eight bracts in each head.

Only the pointed, purple bract tips are separated, rendering these cups hard to drink from. The curled back rolls of ray floret remains and the glut of disc florets turning into fruit in the centre, put paid to these cups as drinking utensils.

Yellow disc floret lobe tips together with exserted stigmas and anthers are present on one flowerhead and pappus bristles of fruits already formed in another.

The older heads further along the fruiting sequence, have their involucres bent inwards forming a conic section, while the fleshy floral parts still present in the younger heads, keep the head-shape cylindrical (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Bond and Goldblatt, 1984; iNaturalist).