Pelargonium quercifolium anthers unripe

The young Pelargonium quercifolium flower in focus flaunts bulging anthers already. Their pollen will soon be ripe and ready for the insects lured to the flowers.

The style is also there, young and patient, curving up from among the stamens. Its base is white, its tip purple but the five style branches where the stigmas reside have not separated yet. The pollen will ripen and be used first, before the stigmas mature. It is not ladies first in Pelargonium flowers (Euston-Brown and Kruger, 2023; Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; iNaturalist; https://opus.sanbi.org).