Berkheya cuneata post mortem

In the largely decayed Berkheya cuneata flowerhead or capitulum all is dead apart from the seeds that may germinate when moisture arrives.

Belonging to the Asteraceae family, a flowerhead develops multiple fruits from multiple disc florets, normally resulting in several seeds housed in one old head such as the one in picture.

Of interest is the need for a flowerhead to hold on to all its seeds, not dispersing them individually. Thousands of Asteraceae flowerheads do this the other way, but evolution tends to cover all bases.

In picture each seed is narrow and brown lower down in its fruit, the whitish pappus at the top part of the supporting features or “packaging” (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Leistner, (Ed.), 2000; iNaturalist).