Orbea variegata big bud

This Orbea variegata bud is about ready to burst the seams connecting its corolla lobes. The lobes are pale creamy green on their outside surfaces, dull maroon lines about parallel longitudinally across them.

The five lobes meet in neat straight lines in one central point, 72? angles formed by the lobes as any beginner geometry student will tell you. (The flower is zygomorphic, i.e. radially symmetric, so the lobes can be assumed to be equal in size.)

This Orbea species is the best known in the genus, much described and the intraspecies variations much debated by its botanical and lay admirers (Frandsen, 2017; White and Sloane, 1937).