Tag: Aizoaceae (Mesembryanthemaceae)

Cheiridopsis pillansii

This species is a common sight on soft saline soil and low outcrops in the Richtersveld, from north of Lekkersing to the Augrabiesberg, at an altitude of 200-300 m. This is a winter rainfall area, which receives less than 100 mm rain per year.

It develops large, dense clumps 6-10 cm tall and up to 50 cm in diameter.
The more or less erect leaves are pale greyish white to bluish green, broad and thick (1-2.5 cm) and up to 4.5 cm long.
The flowers are 5-6 cm in diameter and range from cream and yellow to orange-red, sometimes with a purplish tinge. They appear in winter and spring (August-September).

 

 

 

 

Chasmatophyllum musculinum (mosvygie)

This attractive species is widespread in the summer rainfall area of South Africa from the North-eastern Karoo into the Free State and Bushmanland and is also found in southern Namibia. It occurs in flats, in shale or coarser sand or gravel and easily establishes itself along roadsides and in other open spaces.

The plants are rather variable: compact to freely branched with creeping branches, forming dense mats or growing in tufts.
The leaves are more or less trigonous, 1-2.5 cm long, 0.4-0.5 cm wide and thick; they are covered with prominent whitish warts.
Flowers appear from August to December; they have a very short stalk and are about 1.5 cm in diameter. The petals are golden yellow but reddened at the tip on the back surface. They open from late afternoon to early evening.

NB. The picture labelled C. musculinum in Robin Frandsen’s “Succulents of Southern Africa” does not show this species but rather a Stomatium.

Mesembryanthemum (Prenia) pallens

Common name: Skotteloor

This species produces firm creeping stems up to over 60 cm long.
The leaves vary from narrowly elongate to egg-shaped and are flatly triangular in cross-section, grey green, up to 2 cm long and 0.6 cm wide. The basal leaves are erect and larger.
From September to December the plants display their pale pink or white, sometimes yellow, flowers, which are up to 3.5 cm across.

The species occurs from Namaqualand to the dry regions of the winter rainfall area of the Western Cape and is rather common on flats and among rocks and abundant as a pioneer in disturbed places such as roadsides.

Cheiridopsis robusta

C. robusta has a wide distribution which is probably the cause of its considerable variation in certain features. This in turn has led to a  high number of synonyms (16 in total).
It is easy to cultivate and to flower, one of the reasons for it being probably the most common species of Cheiridopsis in cultivation.

The plants form loose clumps, 20 cm tall and up to 40 cm across.
Their leaves are  mucronate*, 5-8 cm long and about 1.5 cm thick; triangular in cross-section, pale greyish blue to greyish green with a reddish tinge and decorated with translucent spots.
Flowers are 6 cm in diameter, cream to yellow to white , often with pink, purple or  orange  tinges; they appear in August-September.

C. robusta is very common in the Richtersveld and also occurs in Southern Namibia, both winter rainfall areas with less than 100 mm rain per year.  It is mostly found on rocky/gravelly flats or slopes, below 600 m in altitude.

* Ending abruptly with a small triangular tip.

Cephalophyllum spissum (skaapvygie, kwartsvygie)

These are compact plants (spissum = dense, close together), up to 10 cm tall and up to 15 cm in diameter.  They have dark green leaves which are 4.5-7 cm long and triangular to slightly round in cross-section.
The beautiful flowers have stalks to 5 cm long and are nearly 4 cm across. Compared to most other Cephalophyllums, they are rather subdued in colour (purple to salmon-pink, with a paler centre); they appear in July-August.

The plants are often confused with C. caespitosum but they have fruits with 11-15 instead of 9-10 compartments.
They occur in the southern Knersvlakte in loamy soil among white quartz pebbles; often together with Argyroderma delaetii.

Antimima hantamensis

Plants of this species are always covered with spines, which makes them easy to recognise.  Another helpful characteristic (when you have a living plant in front of you!) is that the plants will smell of fish when damaged.

Mature plants develop into erect shrubs to 25 cm tall, with dark brown to grey internodes and  trigonous , 1-1.5 cm long leaves.
Each inflorescence has up to 18 brittle spines on the outside and in July-August may contain1-7 flowers 1-2.2 cm in diameter.
The species is locally common in open Karoo vegetation on stony shale soil from the Cederberg Mountains to Worcester, Matjiesfontein and Montagu.

Ruschia crassa

One could describe this species as a “Big brother” of the earlier discussed Ruschia grisea. It is a robust shrub to 70 cm tall with ascending branches. The leaf-pairs are fused to each other below, with the free parts usually shorter than the basal leaf sheath; the keel is decorated with a single indistinct tooth.
In late spring/early summer (Oct.-Jan.) the plants are blooming with white flowers 22 mm in diam.

The species is to be found on shale and gravel plains of the southern Great Karoo from Matjiesfontein to Prince Albert.


                    

Chasmatophyllum (Hereroa) stanleyi

At present,  the genus Chasmatophyllum contains nine species, but a proper taxonomic study would probably reduce this number. The genus name is derived from two Greek words:  chasma (open mouth) and phyllum (leaf).
C. stanleyi is a low shrub 7-9 cm tall with a stout woody rootstock and ascending branches.
The leaves are trigonous, 10-13 mm long, 3 mm wide and up to 4 mm thick, covered with little warts; the keel usually has a prominent recurved tooth below the tip and the margins sometimes have a tooth on each side.
In September -October the flowers appear; they are yellow (reddish at the tips) and 20-24 mm in diameter.
Occurring on stony to shaley slopes and flats from Laingsburg into the Karoo  and the Eastern Cape.

Mitrophyllum grande

Depending on the time of the year, plants belonging to the genus Mitropyllum develop completely different leaf pairs.
During the resting period, the pairs consist of two leaves pressed together in an upright position. This cone-shaped entity is covered in a paper-thin skin, the remains of the preceding leaf pair.
At the beginning of the vegetation period, the leaf pairs start to swell, and the pressure causes the skin to rip apart. After a while, the old leaves are in a more or less horizontal position and in between them the early stage of the mitre-shaped leaves can be seen. In the next phase, the latter start showing their final shape. The original leaves now only bear the remains of the covering membrane. The mitre is still very thin but will fill out considerably in the weeks to come. Gradually the old leaf pair will shrivel and ultimately wither to dry remains. The mitre-shaped leaf has now attained the shape which the genus name refers to.

This phenomenon whereby plants possess leaves of more than one shape or size is called heterophylly.
In Mitrophyllum and related genera this means that the leaves of the hot resting period are smaller than those present at the height of the cool growing season, resulting in less loss of water.

M. grande is a shrublet with a compact centre and short-shoots from which erect long-shoots develop.
It has green to yellowish-green leaves, which in the first pairs are 6-12 x 1.5-3 mm, with tongue-shaped to triangular free parts; the second-pairs are fused for 4/5, forming an oval body 2.5-10 cm long and 1.5-3.5 cm wide.
The thick and soft internodes are 1-1.5 cm in diam.
Yellow or white flowers appear in May-July (Oct.-Dec. in the northern hemisphere) and are up to 4.5 cm in diam.

Restricted to a small area in the Richtersveld, where it occurs on S to SE slopes with quartzitic stones.

In cultivation a strict summer rest should be respected.

Ruschia grisea

This is one of those Ruschia species which give the impression of being stem rather than leaf succulents.
In his magnum opus FLOWERING STONES AND MID-DAY FLOWERS ( published in 1957), Gustav Schwantes has to say the following on this topic:
A number of species are interesting because their leaves appear to be much shortened. In Lampranthus also one sees that the pairs of leaves, arranged cross-wise to each other, are partly united at the base. In this way a quite short tube is formed which is called the leaf sheath. In many species of Ruschia this sheath is considerably longer and united to the stem which it surrounds like a sleeve*.
The free leaf tips are often very short so that altogether there is a considerable reduction of the leaf surface. The stem itself cannot be seen. Where the parts of the leaf that are united into a sheath join there is a seam-like groove, which runs down from one pair of leaves to the next. In this way very remarkable structures are produced. They look somewhat like Horse Tails and present a very antediluvian appearance in consequence; but for us they represent more interesting evidence of the struggle these plants have with the fearful, pitiless African sun. We find therefore, that these very distinct thirst-endurers which, owing to the reduction in the size of the leaves, lose less water by evaporation, occur in arid and barren areas. Such a Ruschia, by its habit, when flowers and fruits appear in long lines on the apparently withered stems, is a most unusual sight.

       *Even after the transfer of about a hundred of these species to the genus Antimima, at least twenty of the remaining Ruschias show this phenomenon. (See posts on R. crassa,  impressa,  karrooica).

R. grisea grows into a lax shrublet to 30 cm tall with stiff, spreading branches.
The leaf sheath is up to 5 mm long; the free parts are 2-4 mm long and bear 1 or 2 small teeth at the tip. The pale pink flowers are about 1.4 cm in diameter and appear in November-December.
One can come across this species on shale flats from the Little Karoo to the Calvinia-Sutherland and the Middelburg area.