Wachendorfia paniculata yellow with red markings

As the Wachendorfia genus consists of only four species, identifying Wachendorfia thyrsiflora should be easy. Intraspecies variation may touch upon grey areas among the species identities. There have already been some rearranging and renaming within the genus.

Speciation is characterised by hotspots and turning points. Wachendorfia may be in such a phase, making history with new forms emerging in nature in our time. So, no surprise that the W. paniculata photos show such variability in flower forms. The W. paniculata flower shown here is marked red in irregular squiggles only on the inner sides of the lateral upper tepals and on the central one. Small, slightly paler areas occur immediately below the markings.

Enantiostyly is a weird phenomenon on display here. It involves the stamens diverging, the style accompanying one anther, the other two deflected in the opposite direction. This is a more common phenomenon than one might think, occurring in at least twelve flowering plant families and many of their genera. Outcrossing and self-pollination are involved. Enantiostyly is complex, much discussed and researched, for those wanting to pursue yet another intriguing debate in the botanical literature (iNaturalist; iSpot; Wikipedia; www.plantsystematics.com).