Aspalathus kougaensis flower

Aspalathus kougaensis flowers grow solitary and short-stalked from leaf-tuft axils near stem-tips, often on short side-branchlets. The calyx is obliquely cup-shaped, ending in five triangular, acutely pointed lobes, densely covered in whitish hairs, as are the pedicel, the bracts and smaller bracteoles behind the flower.

The banner petal is biggest, elliptic in shape and folded down the centre, its tip sometimes slightly hooded but not pointed. The outside of the banner and the keel are densely white-haired. The inside of the banner is yellow and hairless with faint vein lines, the wings and little of the keel are also yellow, the wings slightly hairy on part of their yellow outsides.

The keel curves up below, its upper margin about straight. The two wings flank the keel closely, the three of them sometimes about equal in length, although the keel may sometimes be longer. The ovary is hairy, as is the lower part of the style.

The photo was taken in May. The flowering season may be about all year round (Bond and Goldblatt, 1984; JSTOR; iNaturalist).