Usually found in dry scrub on shallow, stony ground, this attractive species is widespread in the Great Karoo where the plants form more or less dense clumps up to a meter tall and 1.5 m in diameter.
The branches are 3-8 cm thick, cylindrical to club-shaped, with 10-16 angles. The star-shaped spines to which the species name refers, are in fact modified fertile peduncles and are 0.4-2 cm long.
Flowers appear from July to September.
Didymaotus means twin-flowered and refers to the way in which (usually) a flower is formed on each side of the leaf-pair – a feature which is not found elsewhere in the family.
The plant bodies are single or form compact little clumps with age. Each body consists of leaves up to 4 cm long, broad and thick, usually greyish green or brownish-reddish.
The flowers are up to 4 cm in diameter, usually pink/purple, rarely white. They appear in September-October.
This curious plant is found in only a few localities in the Tanqua and southern Ceres Karoo, almost always together with Lithops comptonii. The rainfall occurs mainly in winter here.
More information can be found here: http://www.plantzafrica.com/plantcd/didylapid.htm
Barbata means bearded and it would be hard to come up with a more apt name for this interesting little gem which is not just beautiful, but also interesting in an ecological sense.
The pictures show how dramatically the appearance of the plants changes between late autumn and late spring. Please bear in mind that the plants occur in the southern hemisphere, and also that they only grow in the cooler and wetter months (autumn to early spring).
In nature, these plants are short-lived (1-2 years). They are so-called monocarpic, which means they die after flowering (new rosettes may be produced at the base).
Their leaves are variable in shape and about 1-2 cm long and 2-3.5 cm wide. They are fringed with relative long hairs (cilia), which may be up to 0.5 cm in length and are able to absorb dew. Over a hundred years ago, Marloth found out that plants of this species could absorb in this way more than 5 % of their weight per night.
Although the plants are stemless, they are up to 30 cm tall when in flower (September-November).
This subspecies is widespread from the Cederberg to the Little Karoo, always occurring in small numbers, as a rule in shade, under shrubs or on rocky slopes.
Ssp. broomii is only known from near Victoria West and mainly differs in the much shorter cilia (less than 1 mm).
With summer approaching, the rosettes have closed to minimize transpiration. The cover of long hairs also acts as insulation against strong light and desiccating winds.
In the field, one now and then comes across Mesembs with blackish stains which apparently are caused by fungi (sooty moulds) that grow on the sweet honeydew secreted by-sap sucking insects.
Although this makes the plants less attractive to look at, they do not normally seem to suffer much from it. The subject of this post is often a victim of these attacks; other well-known examples are Antegibbaeum, Cephalophyllum and Cylindrophyllum.
Over time, C. pachyphylla will form clumps of waxy* grayish leaves which are up to 6 cm long and three-angled in cross-section with a very oblique keel.
Usually the flowers are purple pink, rarely white or pale yellow. They are 2.5-3.5 cm in diameter and appear in late autumn to winter( May-July).
Although there are not very many populations, the plants are often locally abundant on sandstone rocks and shale ridges in the Little Karoo between Barrydale and Oudtshoorn.
* The genus name is derived from ceros = wax and chlamys = mantle.
With Conophytum truncatum
A widespread a and very variable taxon* occurring in loamy and clayey soils and on stony slopes from the mouth of the Orange river to the southwestern Cape and the eastern end of the Little Karoo.
The plants have stems 1-2 cm thick, with or without fine hairs, and form clumps up to 25 cm in diameter and 30 cm tall.
The flowers are 5-14 cm in diameter and vary from uniform reddish-purple to striped red and yellow, with or without soft hairs in the centre and along the margins. They appear in March-October.
Also see S. hirsuta var. gariepensis.
*taxon = a taxonomic group or unit of any rank: in this case the term refers to a variety.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
