Zaluzianskya rubrostellata

Zaluzianskya rubrostellata, commonly known as night phlox or red-starred drumsticks, is a low-growing, nocturnal flowering annual of the snapdragon or Scrophulariaceae family. The sparsely branched stems are soft, reddish and faintly hairy. The plant probably reaches only about 10 cm.

The leaves are narrowly elliptic, thickly fleshy with a few teeth along the margins and the tips acutely pointed. The margins may curve up laterally, rendering the upper surfaces channelled. The blades are variably down-curved along the length.

The photo shows a plant in daytime with petal lobes closed at the tips of the long corolla tubes curving up. Four or five flowers grow from each stem-tip leaf rosette in picture. It is guessed that moths are important in pollination here, when flowers open after dark.

The species distribution is in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal but always quite close to the Lesotho border, the country where these plants mainly grow. The photo was taken in the Mkhomazi Wilderness Area of the KwaZulu-Natal Drakensberg.

The habitat is rocky grassland at high altitude, mainly basaltic outcrops and shallow sand. The habitat population is deemed of least concern early in the twenty first century (Trauseld, 1969; iNaturalist; iSpot; www.maliba-lodge.com).