Paranomus reflexus flowers into fruits

After flowering, the cylindrical remains of a Paranomus reflexus inflorescence is densely packed with parts of developing fruits and retained floral leftovers.

These departing and arriving components include styles, perianths and bracts among ovaries, in dark and light colours. Elaiosomes may already be growing on the ovaries as they turn into fruits. An elaiosome is the fleshy extra that grows on the seed, edible by ants and popular enough among them for carrying the fruits off to ant pantries. This action serves as seed dispersal vital for the plant.

While leaves that photosynthesise are necessary to feed their plants and are grown for that purpose, nectar produced by many flowering plant species is only useful to pollinators, produced specifically for enticing and rewarding them. Similarly, elaiosomes and other edible fruit parts are grown with seeds only for enticing and rewarding hungry animals to distribute the seeds.

It took countless generations of plants and animals over thousands or millions of years to evolve these arrangements of interdependence. Nature is much about mutual agreements across species barriers that fulfil vital functions. This keeps all the species busy, giving a life to all that strive hard enough. Adapt or die takes many forms among the living (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; iNaturalist).