Lachenalia bulbifera having the blues

Red is hesitant on this Lachenalia bulbifera inflorescence. If these plants all flowered like this, the Afrikaans name would hardly have been rooinaeltjie (red hyacinth).

On the lower buds near opening there are white, swollen parts above the purple. The tips may also be green. Only the open flower nods.

Among the smaller buds at the top the floral bracts are showing, exceeding the buds in length. Narrow and nearly white or pale purple, each of these bracts subtends a flower in the raceme. There are often sterile flowers at the top of Lachenalia racemes when the plant runs out of steam, meaning the appropriate juices did not arrive on time during blooming (Marais, (Ed.), 2017; Manning, 2009; iNaturalist).