Brunia paleacea old flowerhead colouring

These prickly Brunia paleacea heads cohere closely at their stem-tip. Underneath the white, spiky bracts of the flowerheads, the colour of the globose bases, the heads themselves, start off white, cream or straw-coloured. When older, the heads turn pale brown as in the picture. Sometimes even pale reddish.

The small leaves covering the stems in a neat overlapping pattern below are pointed and adhering close to the stems. They are only up to 6 mm long, sometimes only half that. On this plant they appear old, browned by conditions and time (Bean and Johns, 2005; iNaturalist).