Glumicalyx goseloides

Glumicalyx goseloides, commonly the great gooseneck flower or the gooseneck drumstick flower and previously scientifically Zaluzianskya goseloides, is a perennial reaching about 45 cm in height. The alternate, stalkless leaves are oblong to elliptic, sparsely covered in glandular hairs.

The nodding flowers grow in compact, head-like spikes. The plants produce nectar near the ovaries at the base of long, thin flower tubes, probably reserved for specialist, long proboscis pollinators.

The species distribution is in the eastern Free State, the north of the Eastern Cape and the west of KwaZulu-Natal, as well as the adjacent Malutis of Lesotho.

The habitat is rocky grassland high up in the Drakensberg. The habitat population is deemed of least concern early in the twenty first century (Manning, 2009; Pooley, 1998; iNaturalist; iSpot; www.gateway.myspecies.info; http://redlist.sanbi.org).