Xylotheca tettensis flower

The large, sweet-scented flowers of Xylotheca tettensis grow solitary or in small groups from upper leaf axils or stem-tips, mostly on small side-branchlets. The satiny white corollas are from 5 cm to 10 cm in diameter, the spreading petals not quite straight. There are seven to twelve narrowly oblong to obovate and short-clawed petals.

The numerous stamens form a mass of yellow, linear to narrowly oblong anthers on pale filaments over the centres of all the flowers. Some flowers are male only, others bisexual. In the photo the stamens are numerous as always, making way in the centre for the superior, egg-shaped ovary, topped by the straight style. The ovary is green and densely hairy, either smooth or vertically ridged.

A calyx of usually four oblong sepals is small at the back of the flower with resinous glands on the outside and sometimes hairy (Coates Palgrave, 2002; Leistner, (Ed.), 2000; iNaturalist; https://www.worldfloraonline.org).