Calodendrum capense buds

Calodendrum capense buds grow in stem-tip heads. Their thickish, branched stalks, yellow-green to olive green in colour are covered in short, granular-looking hairs, as are the five, fleshy sepals. The stalks secure the buds in preparation for their big moment, the opening. The angularly pointed calyx lobes clasp the corollas, all similar to identical in colour, shape and texture; the corollas not.

In picture, the corolla shapes represent several stages of elongation. They begin grey-green to faintly turquoise with pouting tips. The appearance of pale pink is accompanied by brownish parts, possibly short-lived against the dominant pink that takes over when elongation peaks, heralding anthesis.

The opening moment of a flower, anthesis in botany, is always a miraculous affair, vested in small but significant touches of grandeur throughout flower world.

The fact that it happens in silence, often seen by nobody or ignored by most in the living world, does not detract from each flower’s special though brief, bridal moment (Coates Palgrave, 2002; Schmidt, et al, 2002; Leistner, (Ed.), 2000; Van Wyk and Van Wyk, 1997; Pooley, 1993).