Huernia kirkii flower

The flowers of Huernia kirkii grow solitary or in groups of up to four, opening in succession. The flower pedicels of 2 cm long are hairless, emerging from near the base of young stems. Small, lance-shaped bracts are present at the pedicel base. The five small, pale green sepals are narrow, spreading and pointed.

The bell-shaped flower is red-brown inside the somewhat wide tube that is slightly constricted at its mouth. A dense covering of fleshy papillae is found inside the tube up to the mouth of the corolla. They are dark, thin and erect in the photo.

The acutely pointed, triangular corolla lobes are creamy yellow, mottled with purple blotches that sometimes reduce in size towards the corolla margin. Corolla diameter is about 5 cm.

The outer corona has five lobes that split towards their tips, dark in the photo. The inner corona is minuscule, its five lobes above the anthers, about cylindrical to club-shaped.

Flowering happens from mid-spring to midsummer (White and Sloane, 1937; www.succulents.co.za).