Tulbaghia capensis flowers

The flowers of Tulbaghia capensis grow in an umbel on a leafless scape.

The pale grey flowers have their tepals joined in short cylindrical tubes, ending in a mouth of spreading lobes. The oblong tepal lobes taper abruptly to bluntly pointed tips below an irregular, brown, orange or purplish corona. This crown is conspicuously fleshy and six-lobed around the mouth. T. alliacea also has such a crown, but its lobes are fused into a collar, not separate as here.

There are six stamens in two series in the flower, enclosed inside the tube. The superior ovary is three-locular. The honey scent of the flowers is noticed at night.

Flowering happens from before mid-autumn to early spring (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Manning, 2009; Leistner, (Ed.), 2000; Manning and Goldblatt, 1996: iNaturalist).