Euphorbia hamata, beesmelkbos

Nature’s paintbrush may do extravagant things with flowers and fruits in the greyest of habitats. Pale to dull pink is compensated for by the elegant folding of the bracts of each stalkless cyathium of Euphorbia hamata, like up-market packaging. Inside the half open package is the globular ovary turning into a fruit, shorter than its bracts. On a male bush similar packaging protects the pollen flowers.

The maroon or burgundy to slightly brownish fruit surfaces are shiny. The globose fruit capsule has vertical segment lines. The erect, branched styles on top of it are coloured, somewhat in line with the surrounding bracts on the plant of the photo.

The overall range of shapes on show appears like creative sweetmeats or decorations made for a child’s birthday party by talented parents.

The fringed lobes of the five nectar glands around the ovary are hardly visible inside the base of the cup formed by the bracts. These glands were more prominent before the swelling of the ovary.

The fruit capsule is stalkless, about 6 mm in diameter. It is also hairless and nearly globular, bearing grey, minutely tuberculate, three-keeled seeds that become about 3 mm long (Frandsen, 2017; Smith, et al, 2017; Smith and Crouch, 2009; Le Roux, et al, 2005; iNaturalist; http://llifle.com).