Hoodia gordonii arriving and departing

Forensic experts often focus on events immediately preceding and following the critical action of their search. As Hoodia gordonii blooming is the happening of the year, this photo captures the yesterday and tomorrow likenesses of its flowers that frame the crowning moment.

The neatly folded, five-sided, pale brown buds of tomorrow accompany the departing purple and “shapeless” dry, cloth-like corollas that had their moments earlier, with flies and all.

Stem tubercles and the spines upon them undergo notable changes over time (White and Sloane, 1937; Shearing and Van Heerden, 2008; Le Roux, et al, 2005; iNaturalist).