Protea punctata old flowerhead

In the old Protea punctata flowerhead, white or pink in its heyday, all styles have been released and are straightened. Their earlier perianth coverings lie collapsed around their bases like discarded clothes. The styles are about 5 cm long, the pollen presenters at their tips thinly thread-like, not swollen in this species.

This floral micro-terrain among the thin white pillars is still being inspected for food by all sorts of welcome vagrants, never to be prosecuted for trespassing, unless suffering being eaten by still bigger trespassers while they unwittingly serve in fulfilling the plant’s life purpose.

The upper (inner) row of concave, red-surfaced involucral bracts spread horizontally, while the outer three or four rows of these bracts, imbricately arranged, are pushed out of sight underneath the inner ones. There are colour variations in these bracts across P. punctata plants. The tips of the inner row of bracts are mostly fringed with fine hairs.

The greyish leaves visible immediately outside the involucre are hairless, their margins red, entire and thickish on the stiff, smooth blades.

Flowering happens from summer to early winter, mostly in autumn (Euston-Brown and Kruger, 2023; Manning, 2007; Coates Palgrave, 2002; Rourke, 1980; iNaturalist).