Crassula Archives - enjoysucculents

Crassula deltoidea (katakiso)

Within its distribution area from southeastern Namibia through Bushmanland to the Little Karoo and the Cradock area, this species is widespread and often locally abundant on bare gravelly flats, lower slopes and ridges.
In spite of their lack of “rarity appeal”, it is always a joy to meet these plants in the field, because they are not only beautiful, but also show a great variation in size, shape and colour. Unfortunately it is rather difficult to keep the plants neat and compact in cultivation.

In nature, its fleshy, erect to spreading branches give the plants a height of up to about 8 cm.
The leaves are rather variable in shape and size, up to 2 cm long and to 1.5 cm wide, inversely lance-shaped to diamond- or almond-shaped, with a flat to concave upper face and a strongly convex to keeled lower one; they are covered with small warts and grey wax flakes, and sometimes have a greenish, purplish or brownish hue.
The flowers are about 5 mm long, usually cream-coloured, but sometimes white or pinkish. They appear in October and November.

Crassula elegans ssp. elegans

This widespread and often locally common taxon occurs from southwestern Namibia to near Vanrhynsdorp on sandy/ gravelly/rocky slopes and flats, often under bushes.

It is a dwarf plant 1-8 cm tall, usually with many short branches and forming small tufts.
As shown by the pictures, the leaves are highly variable in shape, size, colour and texture; they are very thick, 0.3-1.5 x 0.3-1 cm in size and usually egg- to lance-shaped with blunt tips, green, grey-green, brown to deep red, sometimes even white.
Most often the leaves are smooth, but sometimes covered with papillae or fine hairs. They are irregularly arranged (not in 4 obvious ranks), with invisible internodes; eventually they shrivel up completely but they remain attached to the stems.
The small flowers are cream or white and appear in Dec.-June.

Crassula pyramidalis

Although this species is widespread from the southern Great Karoo and the Montagu area to Somerset East, it is rarely common. It most often grows in shallow soil on rocky outcrops, on gravelly slopes and in crevices; usually on a north/north-east facing aspect.

As the pictures show, the plants are very variable.
Most often, the stems are erect, only rarely decumbent*. They are completely covered by the leaves, which are arranged in four neat ranks so that a quadrangular column is formed. This may be 0.6-2 cm in diameter and up to 25 cm tall (usually much shorter). Once a stem has flowered, it dies back, but new ones are formed at the base.
The leaves are green to grey-green or reddish-brown and the flowers white or cream-coloured.
Flowering time is spring: Aug.-Oct.

* creeping on the ground with the tips raised.
Synonyms: C. quadrangula, C. cylindrica, C. archeri.

A jewel in the Crassula crown: C. deceptor

Some forms of this species are among the most beautiful that Crassula has to offer and in such a big genus with many attractive species, that’s quite something. As the pictures show, the plants are variable in many respects, especially shape, size and arrangement of the leaves.

When not in flower, the plants are up to 8 cm tall, often with several short branches. Each branch forms a short, 4-angled column up to 2.5 cm in diameter, bearing closely packed leaves which are 0.6-1.5 (-2) cm long and 0.3-1 (1.5) cm wide.
The leaves are acute or obtuse, flat or slightly concave above and very convex below, somewhat boat-shaped and densely covered with hard, almost spherical papillae.
Old leaves will shrivel a lot, but stay attached to the branches.
In December-March the plants produce miniature flowers in small clusters on peduncles 2-8 cm long.
The species is widely distributed in south-western Namibia and in north-western South Africa as far east as Kakamas and south to Vanrhynsdorp, usually on gentle slopes or on rocky outcrops, often among quartz gravel.

On edge (1)

Just for a change: just pictures and names. Hopefully a measure of inspiration will compensate for the lack of information.
Let’s start with some Crassula’s.
1     C. arborescens ssp. arborescens
2,3 C. barbata ssp. barbata
4     C. mesembryanthoides ssp. mesembryanthoides
5     C. nudicaulis v. platyphylla
6     C. perfoliata var. minor
7,8 C. perforata

Crassula congesta (2)

In his revision of the genus Crassula (see yesterday’s post), Toelken makes the following remark with regard to the 2 subspecies: “…it is significant that each one can be identified without hesitation. No plants with intermediate characters have been recorded..”

To my mind, there is little doubt that the next picture shows ssp. congesta.

But the plants in the next two ones look like intermediate forms to me.

The last picture was taken just south of Calitzdorp and shows what I think is a hybrid between Crassula congesta ssp. laticephala (which was not found on this particular spot, but does occur in the general area) and C. columnaris (which was growing close by).

Crassula congesta (1)

In 1985, Volume 14 of the Flora of southern Africa was published, in which H. R. Toelken dealt with the familie Crassulaceae. His description of Crassula congesta starts with the word “Biennials”. In other words, plants that germinate and grow in the first year, and flower and set seeds in the second year, after which they die.
So far so good, but … A couple of years before (1977), “A revision of the genus Crassula in southern Africa” by the same botanist had been published by the Bolus Herbarium. In this publication it is stated that:
“These plants are described as biennials but this is true only under favourable conditions. In the field, the plants often become much older before they flower but usually the whole plant dies after flowering. The plants are usually monocarpic * but regeneration after flowering may sometimes occur, but usually only when the plant has been injured and/or if the terminal inflorescence was cut of”.
* A monocarpic plant flowers only once and then dies after the seeds have ripened.

There are two subspecies:
ssp. congesta, which has leaves that are curved upwards and is found North and Northeast of the Witteberge and
ssp. laticephala, with the leaves curved downwards and occurring Southeast of that mountain range, as far East as Oudtshoorn.
In this post only pictures of the latter subspecies are shown.

Crassula muscosa var. muscosa (2)

Crassula muscosa var. muscosa (1)

The great Linnaeus himself described this species way back in 1760. The adjective muscosus means moss-like, which is certainly an apt name for some of the many guises in which this species comes.
In var. muscosa the branches are usually 20-40 cm long (sometimes up to 80 cm) and upright, creeping or scrambling. An old synonym for it is Crassula lycopodioides, referring to Lycopodium or clubmoss. This variety is found from southern Namibia to South Africa’s South coast, but is especially widespread in Namaqualand and the Great Karoo and neighbouring areas. Even within this one variety (there are four in total) one comes across a great number of different forms. In the wild the leaves are generally greyish green to brown; in cultivation one also finds other colours.
The plants often grow in very dry spots. The same thin and densely leaved branches that make them look so delicate, seem to be rather effective in condensing dew and fog and channeling this moisture to their roots.

Crassula capitella subsp. thyrsiflora

H. R. Toelken in his “Revision of the genus Crassula in southern Africa” calls this the most complex subspecies found in C. capitella, which in turn he refers to as a complex species.
The subspecies is widely distributed in the Eastern and Western Cape provinces, Limpopo and southeastern Namibia.
The white or pink flowers are borne in groups along an elongated inflorescence (up to 40 cm tall) and appear between November and March.
In cultivation one normally sees the form shown in the first four pictures.

The photo below shows plants as they are found in and around the Anysberg Nature reserve. They have beautifully marked leaves which are much shorter then one would expect in subsp. thyrsiflora.
As the reserve is on the western border of the distribution area of subsp. capitella, they may belong there, but I will have to see the flowers before being able to properly identify them.