Macledium spinosum flowering

Pink purple Macledium spinosum flowerheads produce bisexual disc florets only and no rays. The involucre is somewhat bell-shaped, the spiny bracts growing in several rows with a flat receptacle below that has no scales.

The floret tubes are deeply five-lobed, in picture white below, the colouring only in the upper parts. The anthers are linear with arrowhead-like tails below. The cylindrical style is swollen at its base, divided at its hairy tip (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Leistner, (Ed.), 2000; iNaturalist).