Gloriosa superba curled leaf-tips

These Gloriosa superba leaves seen in the Walter Sisulu National Botanical Garden during January are broad and oblong from the base but for a short distance. After that they taper rapidly and once narrow, attenuate into unusually long, curled-down tips; in this species useful leaf-tip tendrils.

The plant in picture has nothing for its tendrils to clutch to, the Crassula around it too short for giving support. The tendrils will not hesitate to latch onto any opportunities, even other parts of the plant itself. This serves the lengthening stems in presenting their leaves best to sunlight and the good life it brings to so many green photosynthesisers. (One might imagine some passive, sunbathing habits of people also constituting a form of photosynthesis, although they usually lack the appropriate colour containing chlorophyll for it.)

The alternative to climbing for a fully grown G. superba plant is sprawling in a convoluted mass or mess, which will happen if the unsupported stems become too heavy. Plants use their opportunities to the full, i.e. all the real ones that come their way. They have no business with imagined chances, with longing or wishful thinking that sometimes make people happy or unhappy.

The glossy leaf blades spread laterally, while the midribs are sunken in a central fold. New stems and leaves grow annually from the subterranean perennial resource, the corm (Manning, 2009; Pooley, 1998; iNaturalist; http://pza.sanbi.org).