Lachnaea filamentosa

These white Lachnaea filamentosa flowers grow in westerly montane fynbos from the Cederberg to Tulbagh.

The flowers may also be pale blue as the common name, blue stripper indicates. Why stripper is unclear, unless the early dropping off of leaves rendering lower stems naked is referred to.

Look carefully, this Lachnaea has one long sepal and three short ones in each flower and no petals. There are eight fleshy scales in the throat of the flower though, separating the four visible stamens from four more that are included in the tube.

This arrangement ensures pollen ambushes for insects of different behaviour patterns. Hedging bets is but one of the statistical strategies used by nature in dealing with randomness in species activity (Manning 2007; Leistner, (Ed.), 2000; Bond and Goldblatt, 1984; iNaturalist).