Satyrium erectum anthesis approaching

When the Satyrium erectum or small pink satyr flowers get ready to open, their bracts turn colour and veer away from the enlarging buds. At this stage all floral bracts maintain their erect positions, their inner surfaces remaining concave to their tips.

This changes when the flowers open and the bracts become reflexed. This flexing down is a good thing as flower presentation and pollinator access might otherwise be interfered with.

Some corolla pink colouring becomes visible under the lower bracts, those higher up, to open later, are now still white.

The splitting of the underground tuber brings about the beginnings of a second plant with own flower stem. If all goes well, the new one will next year be stronger, growing bigger. And a third one might start.

This splitting causes the unruly, leafy confusion around the stem bases. Only a few stem leaves below the inflorescences are unaffected by this.

The photo was taken in renosterveld in the Biedouw Valley (Liltved and Johnson, 2012; Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Manning, 2007).