Zygophyllum microcarpum anther parade

The Zygophyllum microcarpum stamens stand up straight here as disciplined school children; that is if the flower itself is not angled, forcing them to lean in unison into a bias like a field dependent community.

The lumpy anthers sit awkwardly atop the ten tapering filaments, like deep-yellow asteroids miraculously landed upon lemon-yellow columns. The terete (cylindrical) filaments arise from the basal disc upon which the ovary also sits.

The pale petals, although fully unfurled, are no big thing in this flower, ignored by pollinators hoping for nectar and likely to touch pollen and stigma. The sepals, hairy on their outsides, maintain their claw-like incurved shapes around the stamens and the ovary in the centre that is obscured in the photo by everything else (Shearing and Van Heerden, 2008; iSpot).