Erica sessiliflora, Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, Cape Peninsula, South Africa. [photo H.G. Robertson, Iziko ©]

Erica sessiliflora flowering in aut3umn in the Kogelberg mountains, Western Cape, South Africa. [photos Colin Paterson-Jones ©]

After flowering, the flower head of Erica sessiliflora turns into a fruiting head where the calyx lobes become large and fleshy and enclose and protect the ovary in which the seeds are stored. These fruiting heads can remain for years and presumably the seeds are released after fire. In the photo on the right, the white fleshy bits are the calyx lobes and the brown shrivelled material is the dried up corolla tube in which the ovary (cut open and exposed in this photo) matures. [photo H. Robertson, Iziko ©]