Berkheya cruciata flowerhead

The flowerhead of Berkheya cruciata has one sparsely populated row of narrow, yellow ray florets surrounding the large central disc. The ray florets are seen to taper near their curving and notched tips in the photo. Longitudinal grooves are visible on the rays. The tiny disc florets are cylindrical with five recurving lobes when open. They stand erect in bud and once theyre open, they sag to point outwards at age, as some of them already do in the picture.

The narrow involucral bracts visible just below the corolla are incredibly long-spined at their tips. Severe looking lateral spines form a cross-shape on each bract, maybe giving rise to the specific epithet of cruciata. The flowerheads measuring 30 mm in diameter are seen in late spring and summer (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2010; iSpot; Bond and Goldblatt, 1984).