Bulbine narcissifolia farewell to flowers

The different floret stages in a Bulbine narcissifolia inflorescences are still all represented here, although squeezed at the top of the old inflorescence. The lowest part is now biggest, full of haphazard to ascending green sticks, the old flower stalks. The pedicels that carried the flowers and the fruits show that this is end game, the work nearly done. Some of the stalks are headless, the fruit capsules missing, while others have open capsules, revealing the black seeds.

A short section just above the green has a squashed looking collection of long-beaked perianths, each covering a ripening ovary. When these ripen, they’ll take their place in the floral cemetery below.

Still higher up is the usual one-day show of open flowers, plus maybe buds to flower for a few days more, concealed under bracts at the top of the raceme (Easton-Brown and Kruger, 2023; Manning, 2009; Pooley, 1998; Van Wyk and Malan, 1997; iNaturalist).