Pteronia onobromoides flowerhead buds

The stem-tip buds of Pteronia onobromoides are stalkless and ovoid.

At least six rows of overlapping involucral bracts cover the surface of each bud. The scale-like bracts are oval and blunt-tipped, somewhat sticky and cartilaginous. Bract colours are pale yellow to cream and grey in parts, as well as a dark green band down the centre of most, maybe all of them.

Some new leaves are sprouting from leaf axils as new branchlet tips in picture. These youngest leaves are erect and oblong with protruding midribs on the outside, the lower leaf surfaces.

The oldest, spreading leaves in picture are pale green, the younger ones silvery blue-grey. The sunken midrib is evident throughout on the leaves (Hulley, et al, 2010: Ethnobotany, leaf anatomy, essential oil composition and antibacterial activity of Pteronia onobromoides (Asteraceae). SA Journal of Botany 76(1):43-48; Le Roux, et al, 2005; Manning and Goldblatt, 1996; JSTOR; iNaturalist).