Hibiscus aethiopicus var. ovatus stem getting ready

These dicot flowering-stems on which the nodes are alternate is the Kouga plant here called Hibiscus aethiopicus var. ovatus, seen in two more photos in this Album. A few slender, wiry and erect upper stem parts are visible, maybe branches of the tallest stem. They are green and smooth, the nodes widely spaced, each with a single reduced leaf or bract that is long, linear and channelled above.

There is a stem-tip bud as well as smaller buds from upper leaf axils. The long, thin, hairy buds turn purple from green on sepal midribs before opening, now still attenuating slowly to narrow sepal tips. The seven or so spreading epicalyx lobes are acutely pointed, positioned immediately below each calyx (Euston-Brown and Kruger, 2023; Manning, 2009; Pooley, 1998; iNaturalist).