Ursinia cakilefolia fruit

Once the pretty Ursinia cakilefolia flowerhead has done its aesthetic thing of blooming, serious production activities of the procreative kind take over. Fruits form inside all the tiny disc florets where everything had proceeded in accordance with the species reproductive plan.

The ultimate objective? Maximal seed dispersal to every conceivable spot chosen by the winds of the day. Maximal, because the winds are so free, totally oblivious of where an U. cakilefolia seed might succeed in growing to produce more seed one day.

Ursinia ray florets are usually sterile. Earlier, during flowering it was the outermost ring of disc florets that opened first. It should thus be expected that the outer florets will have their fruit ripen first as well.

These white contraptions around the perimeter of the has-been flowerhead are therefore fruit. An U. cakilefolia fruit is fitted with a pappus on top, consisting of two rows of different-looking white scales.

The five scales of the outer row are large, flat, papery and rounded. They spread like a belated, alternative flower-shape on the old head. Having been floral parts themselves during the flowering phase, they fit this business.

The inner row comprises five smaller “scales” or bristles, erect and thread-like projections. A pappus is really the modified calyx of an individual floret that earlier surrounded the base of the corolla tube in the flowerhead of any Asteraceae plant. A pappus serves in aiding the wind, supporting seed dispersal.

Every Asteraceae genus has its own typical pappus or range of them, characterising the particular species. In picture is the Ursinia response to pappus formation that occurs in U. cakilefolia disc florets. There is another Ursinia pappus form of five or ten glassy or fringed scales occurring in one row and enveloping one another, found in other species (Manning, 2007; Leistner, (Ed.), 2000).