Diosma prama flower and developing fruit

The open Diosma prama flower is but one of the developmental stages on show here. An old flower in picture has already lost its petals, its disc turned maroon. All of this forms part of the early events in the sequence of fruit formation. The disc lobes will lengthen further into the five horns of the fruit.

Around it is the ring of spreading sepals, now visible from above in the absence of petals. The broad, short sepals taper abruptly to obtuse tips. The short style is visible in the centre of this old flower, erect and purple, developing after the stamens have delivered the ripe pollen to itinerant insects. The stamens have already departed from this flower with the petals.

There are also younger floral arrivals, the buds showing only sepal tips. One of them already presents some white of an emerging corolla that has pushed the sepal tips apart. The corollas may sometimes be cream.

Small leaves are clustered at some stem-tips, only their tips showing. They appear similar to the youngest flower buds (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; iNaturalist; www.plantzafrica.com).