Protea scolymocephala florets transforming

The white cone formed by tips of the still closed central florets of Protea scolymocephala only looks like snow or casting sugar, but consists of velvety hairs. It extends down to the shallow, lemon-cream basin of the spreading involucre below. The open florets in the outer rings have tiny, whitish pollen presenters angled outwards on styles red in their upper parts, cream below.

There is a graceful balance in the flowerhead design, perfected into elegance over many generations of memory carried in seeds. This effective seed production system has, however, only one design feature in response to appreciative aesthetes among humans that speak admiration and act destruction: sufficient production volumes overcome all interference by those that take notice.

The ascending leaf-tips present the idea of a wider, loose bowl around the flowerhead. Its purpose is hardly decorative, maybe unobtrusively defensive (Manning, 2007; Rebelo, 1995; Rourke, 1980; iNaturalist; http://pza.sanbi.org).