Diosma prama flowers

The cream calyx tube of a Diosma prama flower widens gradually, its pointed sepal tips protruding from the gaps between the five spreading petal lobes of the flower. There is one bract and two small bracteoles below each flower in Diosma, visible on this plant at the tube base, well below sepals and petals.

In the open flowers the filaments are thinnest immediately below the globular anthers. In the picture they vary in colour between yellow, white or beige, depending on their age. The anthers appear biggest when yellow and the pollen is ripe. This is when numerous insects turn the stem-tips into busy marketplace scenes.

The glistening, translucent disc in the base of the pale cream corolla cup has five rounded lobes. These discs are where nectar is produced. The faint green, central part of the disc is the ovary (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; iNaturalist; www.plantzafrica.com).