Euphorbia clandestina fruit in a cup

The cream-coloured, leaf-like bracts around the Euphorbia clandestina fruit form a leaky cup. The fruit also loses its fleshy appearance as it dries, the seeds ripening inside.

The bracts turn pale brown once the fruit has split and the seeds are gone, as has happened in picture to the older fruit remains in the background. The still closed, three-segmented capsule shows the seams where it will dehisce and explosively release its seeds.

Remains of the style are for now still present on the top of the capsule. Also belated, a couple of small leaves that did not quite make it are visible, lower on the stem than the long, fully grown leaf bases in picture. Every leaf emerges solitary from the elongated tip of a tubercle (Frandsen, 2017; Smith, et al, 2017; Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; iNaturalist).