Pelargonium triste stigma branches twisting

This old Pelargonium triste flower has five long branches on its pale purple stigma, curling back strongly at their tips. The female style has by now grown well taller than the male stamens, all of them used up or never used, reduced to antherless filaments. By this time the action is all in the mature female floral parts, the time of pollen arriving from other flowers on the wings of visiting nectar aficionados in the past.

The curving back of the stigma is repeated in all petals and sepals, becoming increasingly accentuated as if exerting to the limit. The flower is acting its age. Its mission of looking pretty for pollinators is accomplished by now, its intentionality shifted.

Personality change caused by fertilisation is known more widely, taking many forms in females of all species (Curtis-Scott, et al, 2020; Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Manning, 2007; Bean and Johns, 2005; iNaturalist).