Pteronia hirsuta flowerheads

The flowerheads of Pteronia hirsuta grow solitary and short-stalked from stem-tips. The involucre is top-shaped, covered in several rows of overlapping, leathery bracts that are not sticky. The lower bracts are wider and green, the upper ones narrower and purplish.

A head consists of a dense cluster of disc florets, thinly cylindrical and pink in colour, about 1 cm in diameter. The florets diverge pronouncedly above the involucre. The protruding purple anthers are much darker than the floret tubes in picture. The also exserted styles are pale.

Flowering happens from late in spring to after midsummer, more profusely in seasons following fire (Curtis-Scott, et al, 2020; Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Bond and Goldblatt, 1984; iNaturalist).