Aspalathus setacea old and new flower

Aspalathus setacea grows in the Langkloof, the Kouga and more widely. The plant in picture shows two flowers at different stages of development. The still yellow flowers corolla colouring is only inside the large banner petal and on the pair of wings cohering with the hairy keel below.

The older flower on the left has lost floral colouring by turning brown, its petals folded in. It flaunts only one innovation, viz. the elongated style that protrudes from the front of the hairy, withered body. The style is attached to the tip of the developing fruit pod that started off as the ovary, only to be revealed to the world once the pod has swollen more and the petals wither even further (Euston-Brown and Kruger, 2023; Bond and Goldblatt, 1984; iNaturalist; https://www.worldfloraonline.org).