Berkheya herbacea involucre exposed

The Berkheya herbacea flowerhead in the foreground of the photo has already lost its ray florets. This helps to display about five rows of bluntly tipped involucral bracts. Greenish translucent with maroon upper margins, there may be slight solitary spines at the bract tips.

Berkheya ray florets advertise rather than decorate as they are sterile. It is the bisexual and fertile disc florets that ensure the seed set, unless some of the central ones are male, only delivering pollen to the outer florets, should the pollinators oblige. Sturdy peduncles present the heads to the sun but mainly to the pollinators.

A few conspicuous but sunken lateral veins ascend beside the leaf midribs to the margins of the dark green blades in picture. The margins appear close to entire but may still be minutely toothed, on some plants more strongly (Manning, 2007; Burman and Bean, 1985; iNaturalist).