Erica bauera releasing seed

These pale brown fruits of Erica bauera, globose and woody, are splitting into sections to release their crop of seeds. The fruit is similar in shape to the earlier green ovary that was hidden inside the base of each flower’s corolla tube.

Dry sepals persist at the back of each fruit; so do the bracts near the base of the by now sturdy peduncles. The protruding styles are also retained here in full view, curving elegantly from the fruit tips. Mature now, they are no longer hidden inside the long lost corolla, as was the case at bloom-time (Baker and Oliver, 1967; Bond and Goldblatt, 1984).