Disa ferruginea red open flowers

These cheerfully red Disa ferruginea flowers were photographed on Table Mountain in March. The bright colouring is mainly on the outsides of the median sepals of the open flowers that are helmet-shaped at the front end, with pointed tip and long, tapering spur protruding at the back.

Some of the dull orange-yellow colouring dominating in the buds at the top of the compact spike remains on some segments inside the flower.

The small buds at the top are not yet resupinate, the twisting underway in some flowers. Bracts protrude like stubble above the top buds (Liltved and Johnson, 2012; Manning, 2007).