 Flowers occur in " flower spikes " , inflorescences made up of hundreds of flower pairs densely packed around a woody axis . Arising from short lateral branchlets off stems older than four years of age , the inflorescence of B. telmatiaea is roughly oval to cylindrical , with a height of 3 – 5 cm ( 1 – 2 in ) and diameter of 4 – 7 cm ( 11 ⁄ 2 – 23 ⁄ 4 in ) . It contains between 500 and 900 golden brown to pale brown flowers , each of which consists of a tubular perianth made up of four fused tepals , and one long wiry style . The styles are hooked rather than straight , and are initially trapped inside the upper perianth parts , but break free at anthesis . The species generally flowers from April to August , although flowers have been observed as late as November . They take five to six weeks to develop from bud , then reach anthesis over a period of two weeks . The flowers produce unusually large quantities of nectar ; indeed some flowers produce so much that it drips to the ground . 
