Syncarpha argyropsis watered in summer

Normally grey, the leaves of Syncarpha argyropsis manage a greenish response to moisture. Summer is the dry season in the Cape, but the photo is from a year before the big drought. In those days gardens could be watered without constraint. Fortunately droughts don't last forever, although some panicky farmers wonder about that.

The flowerheads appear above the leaves on longish, erect stalks. The flowerheads, quite dry in December, well after the normal bloomtime, do not inspire the hope or farmer consolation conveyed by the common name of everlasting. This name is generally given to plants of the genera Syncarpha, Helichrysum, Edmondia and Phaenocoma that bear flowerheads surrounded by whorls of dry involucral bracts (Manning, 2007; Mustart, et al, 1997; iNaturalist).