Aloe macroclada (part 1 of 2)

Over a period of hundreds of years, a great part of the original forest vegetation of Madagascar’s Central Plateau has been destroyed by annual burning.
The resulting savannah-like grasslands are very poor in species. A few succulents can survive the fires, either because they have very thick and fleshy leaves, e.g. the subject of this post, or because they hide underground  (such as geophytic Euphorbias, see Euphorbia primulifolia).

A. macroclada is an impressive plant with its leaves up to a meter long and 17-22 cm wide at the base. In winter, the stemless rosettes are adorned with (usually single) inflorescences which in old specimens may be up to 2.5m tall. The many flowers are 2-2.5 cm long and 2 cm wide at the mouth.
It is probably the most widely distributed of the Madagascan Aloes, from 200 km north of Antananarivo to Fort Dauphin in the far south, usually at altitudes between 1200 and 1500 m.

Crassula barklyi (“Bandaged finger”)

Plants of this species are sparingly to densely branched (usually from the base) and form clusters up to 9 cm in diameter.
The columnar plant bodies are usually erect (rarely more or less flat on the ground);  20-90 mm long and 6-15 mm thick.
Flowering occurs from May to October;  the flask-shaped flowers have cream, 9-11 mm long petals.
The species is found in the western part of Namaqualand from near Port Nolloth to the Vanrhynsdorp area, on exposed quartz gravel flats and gentle slopes, rarely on rocky outcrops and in shallow pans on rocks.


Conophytum calculus ssp. calculus

The Latin word calculus means pebble and in this case probably refers to both the roundness and the firmness of the plant bodies.
These bodies are to 30 mm diameter, ball- to barrel-shaped, very firm, whitish-green to pale yellowish-green, without any markings; they form a hemisphere with age.
The flowers are open at night (sometimes staying open during cool mornings) and are said to smell strongly like cloves or carnations; they are golden yellow to deep reddish orange and appear in April-June.
The plants occur in full sun on salty quartz flats and gentle slopes in the Knersvlakte.

First picture taken 10th Sept. 2010; others 12th May 2017

Crassula brevifolia ssp. brevifolia

This very variable taxon occurs from southern Namibia to the Cederberg in South Africa, but mainly in the mountainous area of Namaqualand near Vanrhynsdorp, in rock crevices or between boulders, often in very exposed positions.

The plants form much-branched shrublets up to 0,5 m tall. The leaves are green, sometimes turning yellowish green or purplish red; they are almost triangular in section, usually 20-35 mm long (sometimes as short as 10 mm or as long as 50 mm) and 2-4 (sometimes 6) mm wide, about as thick as they are wide.
In autumn/early winter (March-June) the flowers appear, which as a rule are yellow-green, rarely white with a pink tinge.



Argyroderma delaetii (part 1 of 2)

No less than 25 synoniems have been recorded for this species, so it will come as no surprise that it is quite variable.
As a rule, the plants consist of only one pair of leaves, rarely 2 or 3. These leaf-pairs are 20-50 mm long and 15-30 mm wide, sunken into the ground. Old leaves stay on the plants for 1 or 2 years.
The flowers appear in April – June; they are 20-50 mm in diameter and may be white, pink, red , magenta, or yellow (see part 2). Even within one population one can come across all these colours.
The plants are locally abundant on flats or slopes rich in quartz pebbles in the Vanrhynsdorp area.

The first 3 pictures were taken on 30 March 2012, # 4  early next morning. Last one: 3 Sept. 2010


 

 

Trip to Namaqualand

Earlier this month I was on an 8-day trip to Namaqualand with a couple of friends, hoping to see Argyrodermas and Conophytums in flower.
In spite of the drought  we saw a lot of interesting plants, a few of which are pictured below.
Many other pictures should find their way into posts on succulents from the area.

Aloe khamiesensis

 

 

 

Argyroderma fissum
Conophytum minutum var. minutum
Conophytum obcordellum ssp. obcordellum
Euphorbia schoenlandii
Haworthia arachnoidea var. namaquensis
Young plant of Pelargonium crithmifolium

 

Euphorbia heptagona (part 1 of 2)

Even a quick look at the pictures in the two parts of this post will tell you that this species comes in many guises.
No less than five varieties have been described in the past, but  most experts do not accept them anymore. In addition to this,  E. enopla and E. atrispina are now usually considered to be synoniems.

The plants are much-branched shrubs ranging in height between 7 and 130 cm and are either male or female. The branches are 1.5-3 cm in diameter and have 6-9 angles with obscure tubercles. They bear stout simple thorns (actually woody peduncles) 0.8-6 cm long.
One can come across this species in dry scrubland on stony north-facing slopes and rocky outcrops, from Ceres and Montagu in the West to Jansenville  and Graaff-Reinet in the East.

First two examples of E. atrispina

Pictures 3 and 4 show plants on the Oubergpass near Montagu


Typical E. heptagona

Lithops karasmontana ssp. karasmontana var. karasmontana

Lithops karasmontana occurs only in Namibia and is a very variable species with 3 subspecies, one of them with 4 varieties.

Var. karasmontana is found to the west and southwest of the Great Karasberg and on its own supplies most of the variability in the species, ranging from opaque and uniformly coloured plants to ones with narrow channels and markings and others with more or less translucent open windows.  All this combined with a great variation in colours, from bluish-white to yellowish brown and brick red.
The flowers are white and usually 2.5-3.5 cm in diameter.

The plants figuring here, were photographed on a rose quartz outcrop near Grunau.

lithkarakarkar 2007-09-09 IMG_2732

lithkarakarkar 2872

lithkarakarkar 2873

lithkarakarkar 2877