Jamesbrittenia breviflora flowers

The flowers of Jamesbrittenia breviflora grow in racemes from upper leaf stalks. The inflorescence in picture is, however, leafless, showing several hairy calyces on curved pedicels below the open flowers.

The two-lipped corollas are red, brick red, terracotta, rose pink or red purple with slight yellow and sometimes white in the centres. (Finer nuanced colour differences don’t always fit descriptive words well, so people sometimes add words to lists that may represent fewer colour shades than descriptors.) The petals of these flowers spread from 12 mm to 20 mm in diameter on short tubes, only about 5 mm long. The specific name, breviflora, is derived from the Latin words brevis meaning short and flora meaning flowers, referring to the short flowers.

The seeds of this plant are tiny, forming in small capsules, about 4 mm long (Manning, 2009; Pooley, 1998; iNaturalist; https://pza.sanbi.org).