Lavrania haagnerae flower

The corolla of a Lavrania haagnerae flower has five spreading, triangular lobes, broader than they are tall. The lobe tips attenuate narrowly and twist sideways in the photo. The upper surface of the corolla is densely covered in tiny papillae, conical and bristle-tipped.

The fleshy, pinkish red to purplish outer corona in the centre is scalloped along its outer margin, neatly fitting into the corolla cup in the flower centre. At the top it has five, finger-like lobes converging and angled up over the white centre where the inner corona and the anthers reside.

The corona produces small, sweat-like drops of nectar that probably entice hungry flies. In nature, these flowers have a distinct odour of dung and urine, probably functional in pollinator attraction, but not always noticed on plants in cultivation.

Could plants ever respond in evolutionary terms to artificial conditions and leave some growth matters in the hands of their hosts? Or do short term horticultural measures and contrivances merely inhibit some normal processes?

Mankind should carry on caring for plants in a standard way for a very long time before proof of evolutionary plant responses to human efforts might appear. This is alien to our nature, however, for human intervention in the environment is characterised by a series of abrupt, invasive steps, modified continually for improvement as knowledge increases and objectives change.

Our style is to take control of nature, shaking and shaping things up, instead of minimising intervention and coexisting harmoniously. Considerations of regret and caring usually arrive late, when the impact is glaring and irreversible, the losses already affecting human lifestyle directly… so very unlike the angels that fear to tread (SP Bester (2009): Lavrania haagnerae. Flowering Plants of Africa, vol.61, pp. 98–106; iSpot).