Month: March 2019

Mesembryanthemum (Phyllobolus) nitidum

Usually this is a low shrub up to 30 cm tall, but sometimes it has a different growth form (ranging from cushion-like to scrambling).
Its stems are weakly woody and have a conspicuous cork layer.
The yellow-green leaves are 4-ranked and almost cylindrical, with conspicuous and usually large bladders cells.
The flowers are 2-3.5 cm in diameter, pale yellow, sometimes pale pink or salmon; they appear in August-October and produce capsules with 4- to 5 compartments

Widespread on dry flats from Kenhardt and Gamoep via Vanrhynsdorp and Calvinia to Swellendam and Prince Albert.

 

Curio (Senecio) citriformis

This species was described in 1956 from material collected at Donkerkloof northwest of Montagu. For whatever reason, modern references place the plants at least a hundred kms to the East in the Little Karoo, either at the foothills of the Klein Swartberge or between Barrydale and Ladismith. *
They are found on rocky flats and outcrops.

Their 5-10 cm long fleshy rootstocks branch at soil level or below and thereby form small cushions.
The leaves are up to 3 cm long and about 1 cm thick and wide, spindle-shaped or almost spherical with tapered ends like a lemon (hence the name). They have a bluish grey waxy cover and are decorated with around 40 longitudinal clear stripes.
The 10-15 cm tall peduncles bear 1-3 creamy white flowerheads about 0.5 cm in diameter and appear in Jan. – March.

*All pictures apart from the first one, were taken a week ago about a km northeast of Montagu.

Smicrostigma viride

This species is typical for the Little Karoo and has some peculiar characteristics: the leaves are fused at their base, forming a long sheath, so that the plant looks like a stem succulent, and the flowers  do not close again once they are open.
At first sight, the plants resemble certain Ruschia’s and they have flowers like Erepsia, but still they are usually easy to recognise. Actually, the plants are so different from others that the genus is monotypic.  In other words: there is only one species of Smicrostigma.

The plants are up to 60 cm tall with more or less erect branches becoming woody with age. They have leaves with a sheath up to 2.5 cm long and shorter free parts with a recurved tip.
The solitary flowers are to 3 cm in diameter and have a very short stalk. They are said to flower from spring to summer, but in my area they can be found in flower the whole year round.
The anthers and stigma are completely hidden by a group of light pink to usually purple petals and the seed capsules have 7-10 compartments.

Although the species is largely endemic to the Little Karoo, it is found from Uniondale westwards to Worcester, mainly in dry shrubby vegetation on sandy to loamy soils.

Gibbaeum angulipes

Although locally abundant, this species is known only from a few sites in the Riversdale area, on N-facing slopes in bare loamy places with a sprinkling of quartz pebbles.

The plants form huge mats (up to 2 m in diameter) of erect leaves. These are about 2.5 cm long, slightly keeled, silvery or greyish (sometimes green) and somewhat velvety.
The flowers are purple-pink, about 2.5 cm in diameter, appearing in October-December.

The first 2 pictures were taken early November 2009, the other ones mid September 2011.