Serruria elongata

Serruria elongata or long-stalk spiderhead is a plant belonging to the protea family. It is an erect, hairless shrublet of 1–1½ m (3½–5 ft) high with densely set, alternate, finely divided leaves lower down the plant, with needle-like segments. On top of an up to 30 cm (12 in) long inflorescence stalk are several, loosely arranged heads of pin-like, densely silvery-haired flower buds, each of which opens with four curled, magenta pink corolla lobes. The species is endemic to the southern Western Cape province of South Africa. It flowers during the southern hemisphere winter and early spring, between June and September.

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Serruria elongata is a small, hairless shrub of 1–1½ m (3½–5 ft) high with upright or rising stems. Its leaves are arranged in what appears to be a whorl at the base of the inflorescence stalk, are 5–12+1⁄2 cm (2.0–4.9 in) long twice or more feather-shaped divided in the upper half to third, with about sixty segments, hairless or young leaves sometimes felty. The highest order segments are about 1 mm (0.039 in) thick, cylinder-shaped with a blunt tip that carries a pointy extension of the midrib. Each stalk carries five to twenty five flower heads, arranged like a panicle or corymb on the long common inflorescence stalk, extending far above the leaves. The inflorescence stalk is hairless and 15–30 cm (6–12 in) long. The primary branches of the inflorescence stalk are up to about 6 cm (2+1⁄4 in) in length and mostly carry several heads, each of which is subtended by a lance-shaped bract of 4–8 mm (0.16–0.31 in) long, with a pointy or pointed tip (or acute or acuminate). The stalks that carry the individual flower heads are 4–6 mm (0.16–0.24 in) long, hairless, and lack or have a very small bract. Flower heads are about 1½ cm (0.6 in) across. The hairless bract that subtends the individual flower is purplish in colour, about 6 mm (0.24 in) long and 3 mm (0.12 in) wide, and consists of a roundish body from which a thick midrib extends in a long, stretched tip. The silvery flowers are straight while still buds. The lower part of the 4-merous perianth with the lobes fused (called the tube) is 3 mm (0.12 in) long, hairless and quickly splits to its base. The middle part where all four segments that become free as soon as the flower opens (called claws) are magenta pink, 6+1⁄2–8 mm (1⁄4–1⁄3 in) long, very narrowly spade-shaped, and covered in short hairs pressed to its surface. The higher part consist of four segments (called limbs) each 2 mm (0.079 in) long, narrowly oblong, with an almost pointy tip and felty hairy. These are each directly merged with a felty hairy, line-shaped anther of 1+1⁄2 mm (0.059 in) long. The felty ovary is about 1 mm (0.039 in) long. It is extended into a cylinder-shaped, hairless style of about 6+1⁄2 mm (0.26 in) in length. It is topped by a blunt, oblong or nearly hoof-shaped stigma of about 1+1⁄3 mm (0.052 in), that is slightly thicker than the style. The one-seeded fruit sits on a short stalk, is about 2 mm (0.079 in) long, more or less egg-shaped, with a short beak and covered in rust-coloured hairs.