Eucomis schijffii curved stamens

Stamens are not always straight, but always masculine. These Eucomis schijffii filaments curve up as they become thinner to their tips, where the yellow, pollen-laden anthers reciprocate by curving down. The effect is, however, only a feature of the photo, for the stamens curve up and outwards from below the flower’s superior ovary in a ring around it.

The superior ovary is truly the motherly part of the flower, although bossing in Mother Superior sense isn’t her thing. She does play the part of becoming the fruit capsule that houses the seeds, the future for which the whole flowering hullabaloo is routinely held.