Portulacaria afra flowers

The flowers of Portulacaria afra grow in many-flowered, branching inflorescences at the end of short lateral branchlets. The five-pointed star-shaped flower becomes about 5 mm in diameter. There are two sepals. The long, white stamens, five to seven in number, have small dark anthers.

Flower colour varies from pale pink to almost red or purplish. Flowering happens from midspring to summer. This photo was taken in January in the Huisrivier Pass near Calitzdorp where large stands of spekboom dominate the landscape.

The spekboom fruit is a small, three-winged capsule, 5 mm in length, dangling from a small stalk (Coates Palgrave, 2002; Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2010; Smith and Crouch, 2009).