Phylica lachneaeoides nearing the end of the exercise

    Phylica lachneaeoides nearing the end of the exercise
    Author: Ivan Lätti
    Photographer: Thabo Maphisa

    After flowering, Phylica lachneaeoides stem-tips transform as they enter fruiting mode. The successful ovaries, having received their pollen without a hitch, bulge into spherical fruits among the stem-tip leaves. The upper tubular parts of the faded flowers now drop off.

    It seems as if only few of the flowers at each stem-tip in the region is this year succeeding to fruit successfully. And some of the upper leaves in picture bring into question the notion that these leaves are always completely hairless (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Bond and Goldblatt, 1984; iNaturalist).

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