Oftia africana flowers

The fragrant, white flowers of Oftia africana grow solitary on short stalks from upper leaf axils. The calyx is five-lobed as is the corolla that has only slight inequality among its lobes.

The corolla spreads to 1 cm in diameter. The cylindrical corolla tube is longer than the corolla lobes or spreading petal tips. These petal lobes are oblong and at their tips wavy or angularly and irregularly toothed. There is a small dark line mark near the base of each corolla lobe. The flower has four almost equal stamens with parallel anther lobes.

A long, green, narrow sepal is visible against the club-shaped, pale green and hairy base of the bud in picture. The flowers are also hairy inside the flower tubes. Flowering is more vigorous in spring and summer, but tends to continue for the rest of the year.

The fruit is a small, globular, succulent, green drupe (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2010; Manning, 2007; Leistner, (Ed.), 2000; http://pza.sanbi.org).