Phaenocoma prolifera flowering well

Phaenocoma prolifera can flower abundantly in its season of more than half the year during the warmer months. Every flowerhead occurs at its own branch tip, the coverage in picture indicating prolific branching. What’s more, each head contains from 800 to 1000 tiny disc florets, only about 20 of them female.

The female florets are slender, forming a spaced row in the disc perimeter. The male florets are numerous in the disc centre, cylindrically tubular and five-lobed with hairy petals. The ones right in the centre open last.

Up to 270 involucral bracts in several rows surround the florets of each disc. A bract consists of a woolly shaft at its base, a dark, band-like hinge in its middle part and a sharply pointed, papery blade at its tip, glossy and colourful for attracting pollinators.

The deep pink of the bract blades fades to duller shades or white with age. The bracts may protect the fruits during fire (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Manning, 2007; Bean and Johns, 2005; Leistner, (Ed.), 2000; iNaturalist).