Serruria candicans flowerheads

The small, stalked flowerheads of Serruria candicans grow in a branched cluster of up to 25 at a stem-tip. Such an inflorescence is up to 2,5 cm long and 3 cm wide.

The straight perianths of each head start off erectly in a flat-topped cluster, very hairy particularly at their bulging, silvery tips. Shorter hairs are present on the pink-purple perianth limbs below.

When the individual florets open, the four perianth segments fall away from the thin style that had been hidden in the closed perianth. The style ends in the pollen presenter upon which the anthers have deposited their pollen before collapsing in a feathery heap below.

Straight, angled styles are visible in the photo. They are white near the base and blackish purple at their tips, the pollen presenters that will later assume stigma duties when pollen from elsewhere activates them to form seeds in their ovaries below.

Flowering happens in late winter to early summer. The photo was taken in September at Bartholomeus Klip where the Elandsberg Nature Reserve is situated. Many insects contribute to the plant’s pollination.

The fruits are nutlets, the seeds ripening around two months after flowering, ready for dispersal.

The dull grey-green to blue-green leaf segments around the flowerheads in picture are terete (cylindrical), finely hairy and acutely pointed at the tips that are mostly red-brown (Bond and Goldblatt, 1984; iNaturalist; http://pza.sanbi.org).