Serruria aitonii flowerhead

A Serruria aitonii flowerhead grows on a long stalk and comprises 15 to 20 flowers.

The silvery grey unopened flowers cohering erectly in the centre appear like white-hairy matches with incurved dark heads. The older, open florets around them have discarded their perianth sections now hanging limp below; of no further use but as future compost.

The freed styles of these florets, shaped like dark-headed golf clubs on maroon handles, angle out around the flowerhead, ready for contact between the sticky pollen presenters at their tips and passing insects. The styles are from 7 mm to 10 mm long. Pollination of S. aitonii is done by several insect species that eat here.

The fruit, an achene beaked at its tip, is released two months after flowering. Ants disperse the seeds, carrying the fruits off as food to their underground nests (Manning, 2007; Leistner, (Ed.), 2000; Bond and Goldblatt, 1984; iNaturalist; http://proteaatlas.org.za).