Crassula perfoliata var. minor flowers

This Crassula perfoliata var. minor inflorescence is comprised of small, bright red, tubular flowers with spreading, rounded petal lobe tips. A flower is about 7 mm long, its five yellow anthers spread around the whitish cylindrical stigma branches.

Stamens and stigma reach about as high as the petal lobes, fully available to pollinators racing around in the sunshine after food. This they obtain while walking or hopping along in short flights upon the flat-topped inflorescence, a public landing strip frequented by many on a busy day.

When all is over, some seed development will be underway. The seeds of this plant are very small. The flowers in the inflorescence are arranged in thyrse form, conspicuously carried on a peduncle of about 10 cm above the leaves.

The leaves of this variety are grey-green, sickle-shaped, arranged in two narrow arrays and often shorter than those of the other varieties (Gledhill, 1981; Manning, 2009; www.plantzafrica.com).