Lessertia capitata flowers

The inflorescence of Lessertia capitata grows from a leaf axil in a short raceme, compact like a head. The inflorescence has a peduncle longer than the plant’s leaves. It bears five to eight flowers. The hairy, pale green pedicels are shorter than the bell-shaped, dark maroon calyces, ending in the acutely pointed sepal lobes.

Looking at the flowers, the broad, rounded banner petal, bilobed with notched tip, has parallel vein lines angled out to its margins. Bright initially, the banner fades to whitish as it opens and ages, the lines growing paler.

The wing petals that flank the keel are red purple when young, blue purple on old flowers. The pointed keel is darker coloured than the rest of the corolla, following the colour prompts of the wings. The photo was taken in August (JSTOR; iNaturalist).