Kumara plicatilis one blooming, one withered

In its prime the Kumara plicatilis flower nods from a fleshy pedicel, appearing normal. The dry one below it protrudes nearly horizontally on a drier pedicel. It is as normal for its age as the still flowery one. All the seasonal biological events in a plant and how environmental conditions like climate affect them, are the normal life cycle phenomena, as studied in phenology.

Discoloration from withering has darkened the longitudinal perianth veins, whitened the areas between them, but only at the back end of the perianth. This is where the bulge of the expanding ovary heralds transformation into a fruit capsule full of seeds. Not as pretty as the flower but as important in the lives of the plant and its species (Van Wyk and Smith, 2003; iNaturalist).