Portulacaria armiana lower parts of flower stems

Young, upper leaf-bearing branches of Portulacaria armiana elongate into leafless, broomstick or whiphandle-like flowering stems that tower around 4 m above the shrub foliage. The early bract-like leaves on the stems do not last long. There is a P. armiana stem of 8 m tall on record. No wonder the Afrikaans common name is langlootspekboom (long shoot porkbush).

These tall grey-green stems are sometimes sparingly branched. Only three to eight of them are produced per plant. The young branches are soft and succulent, from 9 mm to 12 mm in diameter, the internodes up to 3 cm apart.

The comparatively small inflorescence borne at the tip of the oversized stem is only about 15 cm long. It comprises fascicles of numerous, small, whitish flowers of about 5 mm long on creamy yellow stalks.

The flower has two sepals, a conical receptacle and five petals that become up to 3 mm long. The ovary is 1 mm long. There are three branches at the tip of the style (Williamson, 2010; Frandsen, 2017; iNaturalist; Wikipedia; http://pza.sanbi.org).