enjoysucculents

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.

Cheiridopsis denticulata (C. candidissima)

Forming dense clumps of up to 25 cm tall and 40 cm across, this may well be the most robust species in the genus.
It has silvery white to pale bluish grey (sometimes grey-green) leaves up to 11 cm long and 1.5 cm thick; they are triangular in cross-section and sometimes toothed (to quote “Plants of the Greater Cape Floristic Region”: absent one year but fiercely present the next). When no teeth are present, plants may be easily confused with C. robusta.
The flowers are big (up to 7 cm in diameter), on long, sturdy stalks. They may be white, cream-coloured or pale yellow, are often purplish at the tips and on the outside and appear in August-September. The fruits have 12-20 compartments.

The species is widespread on sandy flats and slopes (also often growing in dry river beds) in Namaqualand (from the south-eastern Richtersveld south to Bitterfontein).

#1: mid May 2007

# 2,3 and 4: mid July 2011

#5: late August 2007

# 6 and 7: late August 2016

Diplosoma luckhoffii

There’s still a lot to learn about these intriguing dwarfs.
They are said to be short-lived and surviving lengthy droughts only as seed. According to others, in the resting state the plants are just almost invisible because at that time so little of them remains at or above ground level.
In the growing period they have highly succulent, soft and tender leaves of which the surface is covered with big cells looking like blisters.
Including the flower (to 3 cm in diameter) the plants are up to 3 cm tall. The flowering period is June to September.

The plants are only known from a few localities in the Vredendal – Vanrhynsdorp area, where they sometimes form dense groups in suitable places (hills of very saline soils covered with quartz gravel). The rainfall here is between 75 and 200 mm per year.

According to some sources, cultivation is very difficult. Others say the plants are easy to grow as long you bear in mind they are winter growers and maintain a strict resting period without any watering but with ample shade.

The pictures were taken in mid-August 2018, at about 10.30 in the morning, unfortunately too early for showing the flowers (they only open around noon).

Delosperma schimperi

Most people will not think immediately of Ethiopia as a habitat for Mesembs, but it harbours at least two species of Delosperma and I was fortunate to find one of them in flower near Dilb in early December last year. The species is also found in Eritrea and occurs on basaltic outcrops at about 3000-4100 m altitude.
In the Ethiopian Red List (2005) it is classified as endangered.

The plants have thickened roots and form loose cushions or hang down from vertical cliffs with stems up to 75 cm long.
The leaves are about 1 cm long and more or less round; they have long papillae at their tips somewhat resembling a diadem as in Trichodiadema.
The flowers are about 2.5 cm in diameter and have purple petals which are shorter than the calyx lobes.

Growing together with Aloe ankoberensis and
Aeonium leucoblepharum

Cephalophyllum pillansii

One of the compact Cephalophyllums, with blue-green to bright green leaves up to 13 cm long.
The flowers have yellow petals and purple-red to brown stamens; they appear from June to September.
The fruits have 10-20 compartments; the old ones often lie in a ring around the plant.

Occurring on loamy soil on flats in western Namaqualand.

Like many other Cephalophyllums, this is often a pioneer in disturbed places, such as roadsides. Together with the spectacular flowering, this makes it a very suitable garden plant and it is therefore commonly cultivated.

With Drosanthemum schoenlandii in the background

Aloe vaombe

The vernacular name vahombe (the big Aloe) is very apt for this both impressive and beautiful species reaching a height of 2-3 m (sometimes even more).

The unbranched stem is topped by a dense crown of 30-40, up to a meter long, leaves; these are dull to bright green, unmarked and U-shaped in cross-section; young ones are more or less erect, older ones spreading to much recurved, dried remains persistent.
The flowers are about 2.8 cm long, orange to bright crimson red (rarely yellow) and arranged in branched inflorescences; they appear from May to July.

Plants occur widespread in dry bush and spiny vegetation in the south and southwest of Madagascar from the Ambovombe area to Tulear; inland to Berenitra and Sakaraha.

Lampranthus glaucus

Often cultivated for its showy flowers, this is a small shrub (to 25 cm tall) with erect to decumbent* branches.
The leaves are fused at their bases, compressed 3-angled in cross-section to sword-shaped, 0.6-3 cm long, rough with green dots and glaucous (covered with a greyish waxy bloom).
Usually the golden-yellow to lemon-yellow (rarely pale yellow-white) flowers are solitary. They are up to 3 (-5) cm in diameter and appear in June-October.

Occurring from the Gifberg to Cape Peninsula on seasonally wet sandstone or loam soils.
Pictures taken on the Gifberg, August 11 of this year.

* lying flat on the ground with raised tips.

Drosanthemum delicatulum

It would be difficult to come up with a more apt name for this plant, which grows into a shrublet up to about 20 cm tall and to 25 cm in diameter with small leaves (2-4 mm long and 2-2.5 mm thick) covered in globose papillae (longer at the base).
The white or pale pink flowers are only 8-10 mm in diameter, without or with very short stalks, and are present in October-November.

Growing on sand and shale slopes -with or without quartz- in the Montagu, Ladismith, Swellendam area.