Young buds of Moquiniella rubra grow in small umbels of up to six flowers from a leaf axil, often only managing about three. A short green calyx or the wall of the inferior ovary is visible at the base of each long, cylindrical bud with rounded tip.

The tubular flower buds start off green, turning orange or red in their lower parts. None of the bud tips in picture has become dark yet. This is a very floriferous plant sometimes smothering its host.

The long, narrowly elliptic leaves seen here are alternate, at best sub-opposite, although usually opposite and decussate, even fascicled. The leaves are mostly smooth and hairless, their margins entire. Faint signs of thickening around the midrib is visible on a couple of the leaves in the photo (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2010; Leistner, (Ed.), 2000).