Berkheya cuneata in flower

This Berkheya cuneata plant was flowering at the Minwater farm near Oudtshoorn in August.

The ray florets of the yellow flower are notably unequal in length in the photo. These florets also deviate in position from one regular ring around the disc. The disc is less compact than seen on many Asteraceae daisies. The ray florets are longitudinally folded or wavy. They have rounded and notched tips.

On the spent flowerheads in picture the bract margins have small spines (or huge hairs); touch will tell which. These spines are dark red in colour and sparsely spaced. The bracts of the inner row, now on top of the structure as the yellow parts of the flowerhead are gone, are smaller than the large spreading ones of the second row (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2010; Manning, 2009).