Muraltia spinosa petal crests brown

In this photo almost every Muraltia spinosa flower still retains its pair of white, crinkled appendages on the central petal, although these are by now brown along their outer margins. The petals are smaller and the central petal darker than the two wing-like sepals conspicuous on these flowers, raised at the back as if preparing for flight.

Flowers of the Muraltia genus have an interesting shape, like their milkwort mates in the Polygalaceae family. Polygala flowers also bear three petals (or five but always an unequal number), with a crest on the middle petal like Muraltia flowers.

Polygalas have two of their sepals much enlarged, petal-like or wing-like, while M. spinosa is the only Muraltia that follows this extravagant trend. The other muraltias have all their sepals subdued and roughly of equal size or "normal", rendering M. spinosa unusual in its genus.

Pink-purple is a colour that features in the flowers of both genera, while Polygala usually has eight stamens and Muraltia only seven (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Manning, 2007; Leistner, (Ed.), 2000).