Salvia africana-lutea, the geelblomsalie in Afrikaans, is a long-flowering garden favourite. The yellow flowers, crowded at the branch tips, are transformed in colour during the course of the flowering season to orange and brown. In older flowers the shape changes later as well when the corolla falls, leaving only the large papery bracts of the saucer-shaped calyx.
Much nectar is produced for attracting various pollinators, including sunbirds. The reward makes the insects crawl inside the flower under the long upperlip hood where the stamens hide. The stamens swivel down upon being touched by the visitors, causing pollen to rub off from the flower's anthers onto the backs of insects or beaks of birds.
The pollinators transport the pollen when they move to the next flower, unaware of their cargo, but bent on finding more sugary nectar (Bean and Johns, 2005; Manning and Goldblatt, 1996; www.plantzafrica.com).