may be whitish or dark red. The tips of the stigmas of some inflorescences may be whitish, contrasting with the red colour of the rest of the flowerhead. An individual flowerhead reaches full size about two weeks after first emerging from the bracts, and lasts another two weeks before the flowers fade and fall. In the first phase, the individual small flowers, known as florets, remain unopened—and the flowerhead retains a compact shape—before they mature and split open, revealing the stigma, style, and anther. The anther is sessile, lacking a filament, and lies next to the stigma at the end of the style. The outermost florets open first, with anthesis progressing towards the centre of the flowerhead, which becomes darker and more open in appearance, and begins attracting birds and insects. The ovary lies at the base of the style and atop a stalk known as the gynophore, and it is from here that the seed pods then develop. Meanwhile, a crescent-shaped nectary lies at the base of the gynophore. The seed pods grow to long. As the pods mature, they range from green, to yellow and finally turn russet red-brown. The pods become leathery before splitting open during early winter,. The pods contain winged seeds inside. In the wild, only two or three seed pods develop per flowerhead, but there may be anywhere from 5 to 50 in cultivated plants. Taxonomy Telopea speciosissima, the New South Wales Waratah, was first described by botanist James Edward Smith in his 1793 book A Specimen of the Botany of New Holland, from "very fine dried specimens sent by Mr. White". He gave the species its original binomial name of Embothrium speciosissimum. The specific epithet is derived from the superlative of the Latin word speciosus "beautiful" or "handsome", hence "very-" or "most beautiful". Embothrium had been a wastebasket taxon at the time, and Robert Brown suggested the genus Telopea for it in 1809, which was published in 1810. Richard Salisbury had published the name Hylogyne speciosa in 1809, but Brown's name was nomenclaturally conserved. Telopea speciosissima is one of five species from southeastern Australia which make up the genus Telopea. Its closest relative is the very similar Gibraltar Range waratah (T. aspera) from northern New South Wales, which was only recognised as a separate species in 1995, having previously been considered an unusual northern population of T. speciosissima. The genus is classified in