Crassula coccinea ready to bloom

Without the scarlet corollas a cluster of Crassula coccinea flower calyces in bud looks like this. The long, fleshy sepals are narrowly pointed, protectively cohering around the flower base that comprises the vital reproductive parts.

More protection, shorter bract-like leaves grow lower down around the sepals, differing from the real leaves found immediately below the flowers on the stem-tip.

Towards the end of flowering the sepals and bracts lose their green colour, becoming beige. The length of the flower in bloom when the corolla is present ranges between 3 cm and 4,5 cm (Manning, 2007).