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    Aloidendron dichotomum flowers

    Aloidendron dichotomum flowers
    Author: Ivan Lätti
    Photographer: Ivan Lätti

    The inflorescence of Aloidendron dichotomum grows in a branched panicle of short racemes. A fully developed inflorescence may have three to five of these racemes, the erect, branched stalks covered in flowers.

    Flowers of A. dichotomum are presented just above the leaf rosettes. On A. pillansii, a close relative, the flowers occur just below the leaves. The often bright yellow perianths, the individual flowers, are broad, short and elliptic, narrow at the mouth. When the perianth is open, the orange stamens become well exserted.

    Blooms arrive in midwinter, turned into chunky, ellipsoid fruit by spring.

    The specific name, dichotomum, refers to the repeated, equal division within leaf rosettes in the formation of more stems. This keeps on happening in the increasing dome formed by the proliferating rosettes and upper stems (Van Wyk and Gericke, 2003; Coates Palgrave, 2002; iNaturalist).

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