February 2019 - enjoysucculents

Argyroderma fissum (Vingertjies, vingervygies)

A. fissum is said to be the most primitive of the Argyrodermas.
Often the word primitive has a somewhat negative connotation, but in biology that is not the case. There it means things such as:
characteristic of an early stage of development or
not very much evolved from its ancestors and therefore less specialised.
The result is that A. fissum looks rather different from other species in the genus.

It is the most common and widespread Argyroderma, occurring from N. of Klawer to N. of Bitterfontein, often found on loamy flats and hillsides next to quartz gravel and in full sun. It often occurs in great numbers.
The rainfall in the area is less than 100 mm per year and typically occurs in winter.

With age the plants form mats of up to 30 cm across. As they get older, the centre dies off, but new branches keep appearing at the outside of the clumps.
The leaves are finger-shaped, 1.2-6 cm long and 0.8-1.8 cm wide and grey-green to bluish-green, often with yellowish or purplish tips and margins.
There is a great variation in the colour and size of the flowers; they are up to 4.5 cm in diameter and may be yellow, mauve or magenta, sometimes bright red, often with a white centre. They appear in June – September.

Anacampseros telephiastrum (Gemsboksuring)

This could well be the most common Anacampseros, both in the wild and in cultivation. In nature it occurs wide-spread from the Worcester to the Grahamstown area on rocky flats and slopes.
It is a robust species compared to its siblings, forming clumps up to 5 cm tall from a thick, fleshy root-stock.

The leaves are to 3 x 1.8 cm, arranged in rather lax rosettes. They are triangular in cross-section and range from egg-shaped to almost circular when seen from above, with an acute tip and short hairs (shorter than the leaves) at the base.
The relatively stout inflorescence is 5 – 15 cm tall, with 1 – 4 flowers.

After good rains the plants will resemble the one in the first picture.

Under more stressful conditions the plants turn yellowish/brownish/reddish, so that they are often difficult to find (especially when they grow in crevices like the next three ones).

The dark pink flowers are 3 – 3.5 cm in diameter and open for 1.5 – 3 hours in the late afternoon and only when the sun shines. In dull weather they stay closed and pollinate themselves. Most flowers appear in November-December.

The basket-like fruits have a charm all of their own.

Gibbaeum album (Volstruistone)

Because of the peculiar oblique shape and white colour of its leaves this is a very distinct and therefore easy to recognise species. It only occurs in a few sites in a small area in S.W. Little Karoo, among quartz pebbles on shale in the Northern foothills of the Langeberg.

The leaves are dissimilar and form an obliquely ovoid body 2-3 cm long, densely covered with short fine white hairs (album=white); bodies solitary or forming compact clusters.
The flowers are white or pink, to 3 cm in diameter; they appear in November-December.

The last picture also shows Gibbaeum (Muiria) hortenseae.

Conophytum subfenestratum (a.k.a. C. pillansii)

Predominantly a Knersvlakte species, it occurs rather widespread from northeast of Bitterfontein to just north of Vanrhynsdorp in shale and on loamy flats covered with quartz, rarely on low quartz ridges.
On these ridges, the plants often form clusters, but as a rule they are single.
The smooth or shortly fuzzy bodies are up to 2,5 cm long and in diameter, globose, but flattened and slightly lobed on the top. They are pale green to yellowish or reddish at the end of the growing season, densely spotted with translucent dots, which usually coalesce to form an indistinct window (subfenestratum = somewhat windowed). Usually the bodies are buried up to their windows.
The slightly scented flowers are open during the day, up to 2 cm in diameter, pale to deep pink or magenta, rarely white. They appear in March-May.