Heterolepis aliena opening of the florets

Early to open, pale yellow Heterolepis aliena disc florets form a nearly complete outer ring of open florets around the inner part of the disc. This centre of the disc houses a multitude of darker yellow to brown and some grey-tipped, younger buds. They appear huddled together like a close-knit crowd sharing gossip.

The ray florets in Heterolepis are all female. There is a thread-like, shorter lobe to the inside of each ray floret, also yellow.

The closed green flowerhead bud in picture is purple at its top where the green bracts are being forced apart, gradually revealing the membranous inner bract tips.

The leafy stem-tips are all white-woolly in the hollow centres formed by the ascending leaves. This feature is soon lost from the leaves (Manning, 2007; iNaturalist).