Zygophyllum simplex flowers and fruits

Bud, flower and fruit are all present in this photo of Zygophyllum simplex. The elliptoid to cylindrical bud on the left is ribbed from the sepals covering all, their pointed tips cohering firmly at the orange-brown top.

In the open flower the yellow calyx bowl at the base captivates the eye more than the tall and slender petals up high that appear superfluous as they wave about ridiculously like flags when there is no wind.

The strongly succulent, five-lobed fruits bulge and shine, having augmented the ovary of their earlier flowers without changing shape. The fruit, the enlarged ovary, retains its erect style on top longer than the other redundant floral parts.

Signs of old fruits remain as papery fragments among the leaves, already disintegrated after delivering their seeds into the world.

The globose leaves are succulent and translucent, biding their time while currently not commanding centre stage in the plant’s developmental proceedings (Smith, et al, 2017; Le Roux, et al, 2005; iNaturalist).