Orbea cooperi flower

The flowers of Orbea cooperi grow in one to three cymes or clusters from stem bases, each bearing a few flowers opening more or less in sequence.

The corolla, a five-pointed star-shape, spreads widely, its lobes sometimes recurving. The lobes are longer than they are wide, tapering to acutely pointed tips, their margins rolled under. The corolla may have more or less reddish to purple colouring among the pale or creamy yellow, the flower in picture lacking the red. Flower diameter, i.e. corolla diameter, is up to 3,5 cm.

A bulging, ring-shaped annulus, creamy yellow to purplish pink in colour and paler than the lobes, is present around the small flower tube housing the corona. The annulus is hairless and wrinkled with tiny tubercles that extend onto the corolla lobes with transverse ridges upon which tiny purple hairs may be present. 

The variable outer corona, the flower part darkest in colour, lies upon the inner rim of the annulus. Its five spreading, notch-tipped lobes are maroon or purple in colour.

The inner corona is pale yellow, sometimes speckled with purple, the outer parts widely rounded, the inner narrow and converging over the backs of the anthers. 

The fruits are paired, cylindrical follicles, tapering to the tip, less so to the base. The follicle surface is smooth, pale grey with scattered purple-brown blotches. Follicle dimensions are about 9 cm long and 8 mm wide in the centre (White and Sloane, 1937; http://pza.sanbi.org; www.llifle.com).