Protea aurea subsp. aurea, the long and the white and the old

Creamy white Protea aurea flowerheads representing both ends of the blooming cycle reveal some features:

The open flowerhead has its longest, inner floral bracts spreading widely. They are oblong in shape with pointed tips. Their surfaces are slightly concave near the tips, the margins hairy. The pale orange styles are straight and needle-like, spreading in an inverted cone-shape above the receptacle. Their pollen presenter tips are white and longish, by now probably reverted to their second, purely feminine task of being stigmas that accept pollen brought from other florets. The style has an abrupt bend at its tip where it connects with the pollen presenter. An unkempt tangle of perianth remains rests around the base of the styles.

Two white and lemon coloured cylindrical buds wait like candles in the background to perform the same spectacle that the open flowerhead is concluding (Rebelo, 1995; Rourke, 1980; iNaturalist).