A bee, a caudiciform, a self-satisfied cackle

I found a honey bee clinging to a flower in the middle of the day, appearing to be at the end of its last honey run.  While a bit sad the scene was pretty with the bee glowing in the sunlight reflected off the flower that I was darned if I could remember the name of.

An iceplant (aizoaceae family); for sure.  This one grows erect and shrubby, with typical iceplant leaves and of course the small orange flowers.  So I searched on the internets for "shrubby iceplant orange flower" and scrolled down the page.  Not Ruschia pulvinaris or mesembranthemum; not lampranthus of any kind but there toward the bottom of page one I found a promising entry: Mestoklema arboriforme at San Marcos Growers.  No photo.  Search for Mestoklema (no wonder I couldn't remember the name, it's hard to type and hard to say) and photos confirm this is the genus but my plant could be either M. arborifome (more likely to form a water-storing stem or caudix) or M. tuberosa.  Still, I couldn't suppress a little gurgly cackle of self-satisfaction with my researching skills.  You know how Gollum sounded when he caught a fish in the forbidden pool in Two Towers?

Anyway, next day I found the bee dead, its tarsi still clinging to the Mestoklema (I'm going with) arboriforme flower.