Alberta magna fruit wings masquerading as flowers

In this photo the ovoid fruits of Alberta magna with their conspicuous pairs of long, red and rounded wings are easily mistaken for flowers. These membranous wings retain their colour for a long time. The wings are papery, elongated calyx lobes, as decorative as the preceding flowers. There are often flowers and fruits on the trees simultaneously during the blooming season that occurs from midsummer to midwinter.

The flowers of A. magna grow in paired, opposite branched panicles at stem tips. The floral parts occur in fives. The flowers are red or crimson, the gradually widening tubular corolla ending in short, rounded lobes that curve outwards. The corolla tubes become about 2,5 cm long.

The stamens are attached to the inside of this tube. The hairy calyx is a shorter tube around the corolla base. The ovary is ten-ribbed and two-chambered (Coates Palgrave, 2002; Van Wyk and Van Wyk, 1997; Pooley, 1993; Rhino Club Newsletter).