Crassula rupestris near fruit stage

Fruiting has started in the old Crassula rupestris flowers in picture amidst petals browning and shrivelling.

The five carpels in a ring inside the petals are by now white, lush and swollen. The carpel tips or styles and stigmas are turning dark brown from their earlier purple. They are no longer functional as the vital biological processes have moved from flower to fruit, from on top to inside.

The five stamens that earlier towered importantly over the carpels in a ring between the ovary and the petals, are here also fallen or falling. The filaments are no longer straight, their anthers dark as their pollen contributions recede into recent history (Smith, et al, 2017; Frandsen, 2017; Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015).