Osteospermum monstrosum fruithead face

A glimpse of the frontal view of the nodding Osteospermum monstrosum fruithead shows beauty to match many flowers, although all aesthetics are by now irrelevant in terms of pollination and seed dispersal. At best the coloured fruits might be noticed by herbivores, spelling peril to the plant’s reproductive possibilities.

This plant and some other osteospermums have an apical air chamber, a cavity in each winged fruit. It is not clear whether this cavity is represented by the circular marking visible on some of the fruit in picture. How and why this feature evolved presents an interesting challenge to anybody sitting on a Namaqualand rock, contemplating the past and future of this plant.

Two of the three wings of each fruit point outwards, pushed somewhat together by the neighbours. The third wing combines on the inside with a wing from each of the other fruits completing the circle.

The wings will be brownish by the time the seeds are ripe and relinquish these ties. The fruits all develop from the ring of female rays around the male flowering central disc (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Manning, 2007; iNaturalist).