Conophytum bilobum close-up

A flower is presented from the split in the flat disc of this Conophytum bilobum leaf-pair. The pale green leaf surface has small translucent spots scattered in semi-random patterns across the blade and rounded by a faint red rim. A big patch of this dark translucence is seen at the end of the slit where the flower emerges.

The second, lower leaf is still mainly covered in the dry, brown, papery husk of the older leaf, soon to be pushed aside as the growing leaf body acquires volume. Between the two leaves a fruit capsule is busy ripening and drying out before the five triangular valves topping the locules, the separate chambers in which the seeds are being prepared for dispersal, will open to release them. 

This is a vital event in the living through every generation, the sequence that perpetuates the species. At the base of the nearly open flower, the fleshy green lobes of the sepals clutch the base of the petal tube (Smith, et al, 1998).