These dry involucral bracts of Senecio junceus, once clutching flowerheads at the base, now spread to form slender star-shapes. In the star centre is the empty receptacle where the disc florets were once erect, a few rays spreading around them, over the tips of the then green bracts.

Upper stem branching may occur as seen here where the stem-tip has managed a few fleshy young leaves; the wonders that rain can do (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2010).