Crassulaceae Archives - Page 6 of 7

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.

Crassula alstonii

It is probably safe to say that C. alstonii cannot be confused with any other plant species because of its unique appearance. The leaves are arranged in two rows and closely adpressed – at least in nature; in cultivation this is difficult to maintain. Each of the almost spherical rosettes is 2-5 cm in diameter.
The plants are found in northern Namaqualand, from just south of Lekkersing to near Komaggas, where they grow on low, gently sloping hills usually covered with quartzite gravel. This is a rather restricted distribution area, but in some places the plants are quite common.

Crassula clavata

Usually the plants show the deep purplish red colours that you see here, in which case they are easy to recognize, but sometimes the leaves are green or yellowish green, making identification less straightforward.
As a rule the leaves are glabrous, but in the isolated Richtersveld populations they are softly hairy. Most of the populations occur in the mountains bordering the Karoo southwards towards Touwsrivier and Prince Albert, in rock crevices and shallow pockets of soil.
The flowers appear in September and October.

Crassula saxifraga

Another of the tuberous Crassulas, widespread from the Richtersveld to the Eastern Cape, in rock crevices (saxifraga means stone breaker) and on stony slopes. The tubers may be up to 9 cm across.
The white to dark pink flowers are relatively big (up to 7.5 mm long) and occur from April to June. The leaves usually appear after flowering.

Crassula hemisphaerica

These dwarfs are found from the Kamiesberg in Namaqualand to near Willowmore, usually growing under small shrubs.

Crassula atropurpurea v. cultriformis

One of the joys of looking for plants in the wild is the fact that you keep making new discoveries. Not earth-shattering ones, but things like a certain species in an unexpected place, an early flowering specimen or one that is much bigger than the ones you know, fruits you see for the first time etc.
Often you come across a plant which you can not identify but which is similar to ones you know, so you have some idea in what direction you should look to find out what it is. Especially when it has one or more striking characteristics, it is easy to convince yourself you will have no problem getting an ID, but sometimes you’re in for a surprise.
The subject of this post is a case in point.
When I saw the plants in the first two pictures, I was so taken by the beautiful and most unusual colour of the leaves that I supposed this aspect would quickly lead me to the proper name. Well, not quite.
For a while I thought they might represent an aberrant form of either C. nudicaulis or C. brevifolia, but the differences were too big.
It took me 3 years to get the right brainwave: throw the names “Crassula” and “Port Nolloth” at Google and see what it comes up with. And BINGO, there it was in a recent article in Avonia by my friend Gerhard Wagner from Berlin.
Amongst many other things he says the following:
“It is remarkable that H. R. Toelken in the Flora of Southern Africa (1985, p. 221) mentions extreme forms of C. atropurpurea v. cultriformis from the coastal area north of Holgat River with much smaller leaves. Such plants, with highly succulent, almost round leaves, we also found south of Port Nolloth at Mc Dougall’s Bay, almost on the beach. Including these plants in C. atropurpurea v. cultriformis seems strange and difficult to understand because of the great differences in habit. It is peculiar that these plants, although they are easily accessible and should be well known, have not been investigated more closely and hardly any mention of them has been made in the literature.”

The first two pictures were taken at McDougall’s Bay, 5 Sept. 2010

The next two are from the same place, 5 Oct. 2011

The last two were taken 8 Sept. 2010 and show the more conventional form of this variety in a more usual habitat (slopes with quartz gravel).

Cotyledon cuneata

The whole plant, especially the inflorescence, often exudes a sticky substance. This does not only trap a lot of dust and sand particles, but also many insects which might otherwise have damaged the plant.

Crassula umbella

This is a member of an interesting little group of tuberous Crassulas. It occurs from the Richtersveld to the Little Karoo, usually on south-facing (shadowy) slopes under shrubs and especially under overhanging rocks.

The flowers appear in July to September and are described as star-shaped and white to yellowish green.

That is exactly as I always saw them in the wild, so that was the image that was imprinted on my brain.
A few weeks ago my wife and I went for a short drive in the area and to the northeast of town I found quite a few plants that looked like C. umbella but with rather different flowers.

The plants clearly belonged in the same group as C. umbella, so I looked up the relevant descriptions, but none of them fitted.
Obviously I had been to hasty, for when I started to reread the descriptions the problem was soon solved. The Flora of Southern Africa, vol. 14, by H. R. Toelken, says : “C. umbrella is a very variable species with several local forms ………………………………….

3. From Montagu westwards to near Worcester plants tend to have ovate corolla lobes with an acute to acuminate apex and slightly longer squamae. The somewhat larger flowers are cup-shaped and usually more or less turned downwards.”

As the following pictures show, this description fits the plants near Montagu to a T.

For the last picture I moved the camera slightly to get a darker background, so that the beautiful little flowers stand out better.

Crassula mesembryanthoides

There are 2 subspecies: ssp. mesembryanthoides (first picture) and ssp. hispida (second one). They both occur in the Eastern Cape Province. Although the distribution areas partly overlap, they never seem to grow together.

Crassula pseudohemisphaerica

In spite of its name more similar to C. orbicularis than to C. hemisphaerica.
Usually growing on shaded rock faces.