Enjoying the Titanopsis flowers today

Titanopsis calcarea, locally known as sheep tongue, has always been a favourite mesemb of mine. It's easy to grow and flowers on sunny days after around 1pm. I got this little plant very recently an I was surprised when it started making buds, I thought it was too young to flower. The outer part of the flower, called the calyx, is similarly rough-textured to the leaves.

These seldom make seed pods, because like most mesembs, the flowers are not self-fertile: if you look at the flower below, you can see the female parts of the flower sticking out above the male parts, which are tightly closed and unripe.

The pollen will only ripen and become available after the style is no longer receptive so this plant will only form seeds if there is another, different plant flowering nearby and this ensures greater genetic diversity in the seeds. These small flowers are pollinated by small solitary bees.