Senegalia galpinii, the buds not red all over

The scented flowers of Senegalia galpinii grow in slender creamy-white, cylindrical spikes from upper-stem leaf axils and stem-tips. Many stamens exceed the sepals and petals in length, dominating the flowers to the point of defining them. The spikes become about 10 cm long.

The velvety hairy, cup-shaped calyces in picture are red-purple, the globular buds in picture small and greenish cream. The red or purplish red colouring, rare in Senegalia, is characteristic of S. galpinii flowers, but the buds usually uniformly coloured that way. The rachises of the spikes (the stem part between the florets above the stalk at the base), may also be red and hairless.

The small petals may also bear the red colouring. The red is here limited, the flowers thought possibly to belong in S. burkei, but there is no red in the flowers of the latter species as far as is known (Carr, 1976; Coates Palgrave, 2002; Schmidt, et al, 2002; Van Wyk and Van Wyk, 1997; iNaturalist).