Fockea sinuata flowers and buds

Fockea sinuata flowers grow in small clusters from leaf axils. In picture there are firstly greyish, cylindrical, straight leaves with spaced rough patches paired opposite clear central bands on the upper surfaces, secondly cone-shaped, pale-grey buds with yellowish pointed sepals veering out around them low down and thirdly open flowers, each with five long, thread-like, chocolate-coloured petals, curving and apparently “rotating” clockwise or anticlockwise on a bell-shaped, short tube.

Some marginal, ciliate hairs can be detected on the petals. The bud cones show seams where the petals will part. Cream coronas in the flower centres each has five groups of spreading protrusions from a bell-shaped base.

The stem is pale brown, the inflorescence overall a multicoloured affair in subdued karoid tones (Leistner, (Ed.), 2000; iNaturalist; http://bihrmann.com; http://fresnocss.com; https://worldofsucculents.com).