Berzelia albiflora preparing to flower and to fruit

The globose flowerheads of Berzelia albiflora grow on long dark stalks in flat-topped clusters or fascicles. These stalks are about 4 cm long and the heads 1,5 cm in diameter. Tiny white flowers with protruding yellow stamens are compactly clustered along the spherical flowerhead surfaces when bloom time arrives.

In this photo the inflorescence on the left has young flowerheads that are white in the centre, olive green around the outside where the flowers are still covered by scale-like bracts, developing. Flowering occurs only in autumn, the flowers on the outside will open first, those in the centre last.

The orange to yellow-green globules of the has been inflorescence on the right, by now an infrutescence, are older, well past flowering. The ageing fruiting heads will grow darker in time, eventually dry out, but persist, holding their seeds. Clusters of flowerheads of different ages are often seen on the same plant as here, sometimes lasting on the plant for six years or more.

The photo was taken in December, early for some flowerheads, late for others (Bean and Johns, 2005; www.plantzafrica.com).