Willdenowia glomerata old flower remains

An old male Willdenowia glomerata flower closes neatly in a skew cone of overlapping brown bracts. Some bracts have lost their upper parts, others attenuate in long pointed tips. The pair seems to have developed a close relationship in their old age, hiding some secrets.

The photo was taken in August on the mountain at Piketberg (Dorrat-Haaksma and Linder, 2012; Bond and Goldblatt, 1984; iNaturalist; Wikipedia).