Rhodocoma capensis flowers

Male and female flowers of Rhodocoma capensis grow on separate plants. The female plant in picture has many slender, stiff spikelets, each with several bracts around the pinkish styles in the perianths. Each perianth has six hard, unequal segments, the inner ones in the flower cluster short and wide, the outer ones slender.

The male inflorescence is yellowish to pale buff, the numerous tiny florets growing in large panicles on flattened pedicels (stalks) and subtended by persistent spathes. Large inflorescences of pollen-producing florets should be seen in the context of Restionaceae dependence upon wind pollination. Every male spikelet has three to six florets surrounded by bracts as long as the florets. Flowering happens in spring.

The fruit is a tiny three-chambered capsule, dry and dehiscent (Dorrat-Haaksma and Linder, 2000; Bond and Goldblatt, 1984; www.plantzafrica.com).