Gorteria diffusa subsp. calendulacea oblique view

The Gorteria diffusa subsp. calendulacea flowerhead is sessile, stem-tip leaves continuing to the beginning of the flowerhead’s outer bracts.

The angle of the photo divulges almost nothing below the white ring around the base of the flowerhead cup. It does show dense, short white woolliness on the bracts as well as the thick black hairs spaced along the margins.

Three very different plant part tips are in view: the sharply pointed bracts, the smoothly rounded leaves and the rounded, orange ray florets with tiny protrusions in the centre up top.

The dull outer surfaces of the ray florets display vertical brush stroke-like markings, as if an artist with many pale colours on the palette decided to use it all up in random fashion (Le Roux, et al, 2005; iNaturalist).