Harveya pumila buds

The tubular Harveya pumila flower buds angle out in a short spike, a mere cluster on the ground. The buds are unevenly cylindrical, white, hairy in parts and only pink-purple on the outer surfaces of the upper petal parts. These parts will be the corolla lobes spreading upon opening. The plants appearance is all about flowers.

The five brownish sepals are bluntly pointed, shorter than half of the more grown corollas. The scale-like leaves and shaggy bracteoles below the calyx are hidden from sight and sunlight. They are irrelevant in photosynthetic sense on this parasitic plant. It operates in the underground for sustenance, all obtained from neighbouring plants (Van Wyk and Malan, 1997; Pooley, 1998; iNaturalist; JSTOR).