Protea obtusifolia business buzzing

Business hours of a Protea obtusifolia flowerhead accommodate bees and birds, lenient to customers for maximum effect. Once the “doors” are open, the bracts do not close, submitting to all inspectors and collectors of merchandise offered in the form of nectar and pollen.

The ideal visitors are the high curiosity ones that check out everything in the flowerhead, but leave the buffet fairly untouched for the benefit of later arrivals, while messing with pollen. It is the diligent service provider that gives its brand a good name in the market.

Only the still closed perianths are neatly arranged in their circular display. Once ravaged by customers and making the plant happy, they are left in a haphazard state towards the outside of the flowerhead. Here the fruiting process takes its course, en route to delivering one viable seed at the base of each withered floret. This happens much later when dinner guests are gone and forgotten (Manning, 2007; Rebelo, 1995; Rourke, 1980; iNaturalist).