Codon royenii winning and losing

Not all battles are lost; at least not by the same combatants.

The live flower of Codon royenii partly eaten in its corolla lobes may survive further bites to succeed and still set seed. It shares the limelight here with a row of floral skeletons, floral bracts and sepals seen from the side; all winning warriors of earlier times. Every flower that sets viable seed is victorious: challenges overcome, mission accomplished.

The scientific name of this plant appears foreign until one learns that Codon means bell in Greek, referring to the flower shape. Do a little digging and the specific name, royenii, is not so unheard-of either in these arid parts of the northwest countryside where the plant grows.

One soon discovers that Carl Linnaeus, the father of modern taxonomy of biological species, worked with two Dutchmen, David and Adriaan van Royen during his sojourn in Holland. The Dutch and Afrikaans surname van Rooyen is well-known in South Africa (Le Roux, et al, 2005; Leistner, (Ed.), 2000; Eliovson, 1990; iNaturalist; Wikipedia; http://pza.sanbi.org).