Cineraria platycarpa crowned black fruit

The upper Cineraria platycarpa flowerheads in picture are starting to morph into fruit, while the process is complete in the lower ones. Small black fruit, broad and flat are topped by long silvery bristle-hairs in shuttlecock fashion, ready to depart on the wind.

A few straw-like corolla remnants are caught in the bristles, while the involucral bracts have by now separated and flexed down below the base of the head. Each fruit has a thickened margin and a whitish hair-fringe, the younger fruits in picture still brown.

The specific name, platycarpa, is derived from the Greek words, platus meaning flat or broad and karpos, meaning fruit, referring to these fruits.

An eared leaf is visible on the stem in the background, as well as some small, pointed ones (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Bond and Goldblatt, 1984; iNaturalist; JSTOR).