Phylica buxifolia flowers begin to open

The long, creamy yellow stalks of Phylica buxifolia inflorescences hold one or more dense flower clusters at their tips. The stalks become 1 cm long and the cluster 1 cm in diameter. The clusters grow from leaf axils and stem tips.

Each tiny, cup-shaped flower has five pointed petal lobes that are angled outwards and up when open. In picture most flowers have yet to open, the globular buds whiter than the insides of the open flowers. The flowers on the perimeter of the cluster open first. An unpleasant odour is exuded by the flowers.

Each cluster of flowers is subtended by fluffy, leaf-like bracts, narrower than the leaves. The bracts curve up from base to tip while their margins curve down laterally.

The photo was taken in May on Hoy Koppie in Hermanus (Coates Palgrave, 2002).