Euryops serra bud becoming curious

Getting ready for its once-off flower show, this Euryops serra bud conceals numerous florets. They steadily expand inside, push the involucral bracts apart and meet the sun. No trumpets accompany this grand opening, although birdsong and insect chirping may pick up from the realisation that a new food source is appearing.

The emerging ray tips are here as unevenly stacked as the bracts above them. A flowerhead grows solitary on a long peduncle from an upper leaf axil or a stem-tip.

When the head is fully open a single whorl of yellow, female ray florets angle up and slightly outwards around the yellow florets of the disc. The tiny, bisexual disc florets are tubular, five-lobed at the top of their corollas and very numerous, often more than 250 of them in a disc. The flowerhead is about 2 cm tall. Bloomtime is from late winter to summer.

White pappus bristles are attached to the fruits (Manning, 2007; Bond and Goldblatt, 1984; iNaturalist; https://www.worldfloraonline.org).