Phymaspermum acerosum disc florets

Seen close-up, the yellow disc florets of Phymaspermum acerosum show their five spreading, recurving petal lobes that taper to slightly rounded tips. The bisexual florets have bilobed recurving styles and anthers that are soon dark. These parts protrude at different stages from corolla mouths in the busy floral abundance confined to the small space of the few-flowered disc.

Visiting pollinators are hungry, not paying attention to what they touch in their quest for food. This serves the plant just fine, as long as the pollen sticks to the carrier until it finds a stickier stigma somewhere else.

Below the florets the paler involucres are visible in picture, each comprising four or five rows of bracts that form cylindrical structures (Pooley, 1998; Onderstall, 1984; iNaturalist).