Augea capensis and spider

This Augea capensis flower in a relationship with a spider shows that small may be beautiful, even to spiders. Flower diameter is about 1 cm.

The flower appears to have more “legs” inside its corolla than are needed to carry a spider. They are shorter and differently coloured to those of the newly arrived inamorato. Opposites attract as they say.

Spiders have not achieved great fame as pollinators, at least not in Namaqualand. Hanging around the affected tryst site may change all of this at least in a sample of one, depending on subsequent wanderings of the itinerant arachnid.

Note the different club-shapes of leaf and bud below the open flower in the photo. There is more about this plant, locally known as kinderpieletjies (children’s penises) on account of the fruit shape (or leaf-shape?) in the Album on succulents (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2010; Le Roux, et al, 2005; Leistner, (Ed.), 2000; iNaturalist).