Paranomus reflexus red leaf tips

The narrow leaves of Paranomus reflexus show their red tips in this photo.

Paranomus species usually have narrow, divided or dissected leaves all over the bush, while some have entire leaves adjacent to the flowerheads. P. reflexus has the two types of leaves on the same plant, the broad, entire ones in the upper parts next to the flowerheads, the thinly divided, feathery ones all over, mainly lower down.

Initially all the leaves on a young plant are thin and feathery when there are no flowers yet. The short, oval ones with entire margins only start to grow at the top of the shrub shortly before its first flowering. The flowers grow on branches of about 30 cm (Matthews and Carter, 1993; Eliovson, 1983).