Corymbium africanum inflorescence

The flowerheads of Corymbium africanum are borne in flat-topped clusters. The generic name, Corymbium, indicates the corymb-shaped inflorescence structure characterising the genus. A corymb is a flat-topped flower cluster in which the individual flower stalks grow upwards and obliquely outwards from different points along the shared stem to roughly the same height.

Each discoid floret is five-lobed, the lobes spreading, but curving in at their acute tips. The floret is subtended by five green bracts that are hairy and sticky. The long, erect stigma has recurving branches. This plant with inflorescence looking like a cluster of perfectly independent, single flowers is in the Asteraceae family due to floret and fruit shape.

Flower colour varies from white to purple or pink. Blooms are only seen in late spring and then only in the years after a fairly recent fire (Manning, 2007; Bean and Johns, 2005; Andrew, 2012).