Colpias mollis flowers

The spice-scented flowers of Colpias mollis grow solitary and stalked from leaf axils. The pedicels are slender and hairy. There are no bracts. The calyx is five-lobed, as is the bell-shaped corolla that is also two-lipped. Flower colour is often white with yellow throats, but may also be yellow or pale yellow, occasionally orange. There are four stamens in two unequal pairs in each flower. Flowering happens late in winter and spring.

Inside the cylindrical flower tube there are two narrow pouches or sacs lined with glandular oil-secreting outgrowths called trichomes that are sometimes hairs, but in this case glands. This oil is offered by the plant to the females of a bee species called Rediviva albifasciata. They live in the region where the plants flower. The bee scratches around in the flower and receives the oil on its hairy feet, the standard pollinator’s reward in this case. Both bee and flower bodies have been adapted to fulfil this mutual transfer over very many generations. The males bees patrol the flowers, contributing nothing to the plant, but waylay the females that visit (Williamson, 2010; Manning, 2009; Le Roux, et al, 2005; Leistner, (Ed.), 2000; iNaturalist; https://pza.sanbi.org; www.springerlink.com).