Helichrysum hebelepis budding

Soft, grey-green leafiness topped by golden-brown, circular patches of granular buds, a Helichrysum hebelepis bush adopts its most flamboyant performance mode in August after good winter rain.

The flower stems become tall, presenting these flat-topped clusters of flowerhead buds high above the leaves, soon to open into bright yellow colour splashes. When this happens, the plant lives up to its Afrikaans name of heuningbos (honey bush), catering for the needs of a multitude of bees that reciprocate.

These plants bloom during the famous Namaqua flowering season, a pageant of variable impact, determined in time, intensity and duration by rain, wind and temperature. The event usually peaks within a couple of weeks from Spring Day, in the Southern Hemisphere the first of September (Le Roux, et al, 2005; Bond and Goldblatt, 1984; JSTOR; iNaturalist).