Baeometra uniflora flower

Only the lowermost flower in the Baeometra uniflora spike in picture is open yet. The youngest buds are still small and green in parts. The flowers tend to close in cold or cloudy weather.

The cupped, open corollas each consists of six oblong and pointed tepals in two concentric whorls of three. The free or separate tepals are yellow on the inside, sometimes tending towards orange, reddish or brick-red on the outside, with some yellow patches visible. There is a black, sometimes blackish green patch or eye inside the flower centre, on the outside this patch sometimes dark maroon.

There are six stamens and a superior, three-loculed ovary topped by three short, hook-like styles. The flowers are neither fragrant, nor nectar producing. They are pollinated by monkey beetles that consume pollen (Pooley, et al, 2025; Curtis-Scott, et al, 2020; Manning, 2007; Bean and Johns, 2005; iNaturalist; https://www.worldfloraonline.org).