Hermannia aspera flowers

The Hermannia aspera flowers grow stalked and nodding in terminal clusters of three to fifteen. The stalks (pedicels) are from 4 mm to 8 mm long. The five-lobed calyx is densely hairy and rounded, covering less than half the corolla length.

The corolla is yellow fading to orange or orange-red, later brown. The flower is constricted in its centre where the sepal tips end and below which the petals are clawed with infolding margins. Above this constriction is the spiral twist and flaring of the round-tipped petals. The petals overlap each other with one margin exposed, the other hidden inside.

The corolla prominent in the photo, has petal blades resembling a fan. This corolla shape, typical in many hermannias, brings about a small flower mouth regulating pollinator access. The petals are up to 9 mm long and 4 mm wide (near the tips).

The five stamens included in the corolla are positioned opposite the petals. Their glassy filaments are together at the base and free in their upper portions for about 5 mm. The pointed anthers are fringed. The hairy ovary is short-stemmed, the style nearly 4 mm long.

The nearly globose fruit capsule is up to 5 mm in diameter, its surface hairy, longer-haired near its tip.

The old flower at the top in picture is brown with dark petal blades and pale fuzziness of calyx hairs. The bud below it has a small, cone-shaped corolla tip protruding from the woolly, rounded calyx.

Floral bracts and leaf stipules are visible in the photo. A stipule is rounded with long attenuating and curving, tail-like tip. The bracts are smaller, narrow and elongate, up to four of them present at a node.

Flowering happens from before midwinter to early spring. The photo was taken in September (Bond and Goldblatt, 1984; iNaturalist; https://casabio.org; www.worldfloraonline.org).