Satyrium parviflorum flaunting curves

This Satyrium parviflorum inflorescence displays interesting colouring and curvature in several of its floral parts.

The most ornate curves occur in some of the bracts emerging from just below the ovaries on the flower stem. Usually deflexed in an abrupt fold, the bracts have here curled strongly, not folded. They have purplish shades among dull green upon their surfaces; not as dark as the ovaries above them. The ovaries have straight ribs, untwisted as the flowers are non-resupinate.

The curving theme continues to a lesser extent in the twin spurs grown from the back of every flower lip. The spurs are bent in their upper halves, cylindrical in shape and tapering to their tips. Spurs may sometimes curve away from the ovary. Here each pair of spurs just about reaches the base of the ovary over which it is positioned, in colouring matching the hoods or lips.

Not to be outdone, the small sepals, only about 4 mm long, emerging below the flower mouths also curve strongly backwards. These sepals are the palest floral parts of the spike in picture, the median sepal below smaller, hard to see in the photo. The pair of lateral petals is even smaller, negligible in this photo (Liltved and Johnson, 2012).