geophytes Archives - enjoysucculents

Othonna gymnodiscus

The photos in this post were originally published here as belonging to O. undulosa, but Derek Tribble of London kindly made me aware of them representing in fact O. gymnodiscus. For more information see Derek’s comment.

This is a tuberous, erect or sprawling plant to 35 cm tall, with leathery, oblanceolate to elliptic leaves which are tapering below and somewhat clasping.

The solitary yellow flowerheads are terminal or axillary and disciform ((without ray florets); they appear in July and August.

Its area of distribution is from Cedarberg to Worcester and Little Karoo to as far east as Port Elizabeth on sandy slopes and flats.

Euphorbia tuberosa (incl. E. crispa)

Common names: Melkbol, Wilderamenas

This member of a small group of geophytic Euphorbias has underground tubers up to 2.5 cm thick which can form large groups. The plants are stemless and either male or female.

Its leaves have a stalk up to 5 cm long and may be oblong to almost lanceolate, linear or elliptic,1 to 5 cm long and 0.5 to 2.5 cm wide, often minutely hairy and grey-green, usually with wavy margins. They are only present in the growing period.
The flowering season is mainly June-September.

The species occurs on sandy and gravelly flats and slopes from near Springbok to the Cape Peninsula and the western part of the Little Karoo.

Othonna intermedia

Of the about 100 species of Othonna, roughly a third qualify as succulents. Nine of these are deciduous geophytes (leafless during the resting period) and O. intermedia is a member of this group.

A resinous underground tuber produces a number of wedge-shaped, fleshy leaves up to 7 x 4 cm in size and green to blue-green or greyish in colour.
The yellow flower heads are 0.8-1 cm in diameter and appear between May and September (mostly in June and July).
Endemic to the Knersvlakte, where it occurs in quartz patches.

Mesembryanthemum liliputanum (Phyllobolus abbreviatus)

Usually, this dainty geophyte (up to 5 cm tall) only has a few leaves and flowers on slightly woody stems produced from tuberous roots.
The leaves are 4-ranked and almost cylindrical, they are covered in big and beautiful water-storing bladder cells. The pale yellow flowers are about 2 cm in diameter and appear in August-October.

Occurring on shale or loamy soil covered with quartz pebbles in the Vanrhynsdorp area.

Pelargonium rapaceum (Bergaartappel, Bergpatat, Norretjie)

Occurring from the northern Richtersveld to the Eastern Cape Province, this is one of the most common of the tuberous Pelargoniums and also the one with the widest distribution. It is found in a wide range of habitats, from stony slopes and flats to farmland that has been left fallow; it can even quickly colonize disturbed areas.

The tubers are often partly exposed and usually turnip-shaped (= rapaceum); usually there is only a single tuber, but sometimes a string of additional tubers is formed so that the plants can become quite large.
The softly hairy leaves are up to 40 cm long and 4.5 cm wide.
In October – February the plants produce branching peduncles with up to 50 flowers which are about 2.5 cm in diameter, white, cream, yellow or pink and most unusual in resembling little pea-flowers.

Pelargonium violiflorum

Of the Pelargoniums with underground tubers, this is one of the most appealing.
The plants have large leaves (to 12 x 10 cm), changing from simple (undivided) in young plants to divided in various ways later on.
In September – November they produce more or less flat-topped inflorescences; these consist of 3-6 parts, each with up to 14 white flowers about 1 cm in diameter.

The plants occur in dry scrub and open places from Worcester to Stormsvlei and Bonnievale. Partly because much of the area has been cleared for growing grapes, they are localised and rather rare.

Euphorbia primulifolia (var. primulifolia)

At the end of our latest trip to Madagascar, we stayed in Antsirabe, south of the capital Antananarivo. The area is well known for its succulents and I decided to spend an afternoon in the mountains surrounding the town. For several kilometers the road leading out of town ran through the middle of a wide valley, and what I could see of the mountain slopes did not look promising at all. At a certain moment we decide to take a little side road that seemed to take us out of the valley. This was indeed the case, but even the hillsides appeared to be cultivated.
When the driver asked talked some local people if there were any bare rocks nearby, he got a positive reply, but in spite of their directions no rocks came into view. At a loss what to do now, I decided to just stop at an uncultivated spot and look around.
Picture #1 shows the first plant that I noticed there. Without flowers it could be about anything, but next to it was a group of flowering plants (#2) and immediately the penny dropped.

With a large tuber 10-15 cm long and to 7 cm thick, Euph. primulifolia is a true geophyte. It has a very short stem, hidden in the ground, with a radial rosette of 4-12 leaves. In the dry season the plants are leafless and hidden in the grass; in other words, they are only visible in the rainy season. This growth form allows the plants to survive the yearly grass burning.
The leaves are flat or undulate, 8-11 cm long and 3-4 cm wide.
Usually the plants flower before the leaves appear, but as the pictures show, this was not the case here. The cyatophylls* vary from white or greenish to pink and violet.

This variable species is widespread in the central highlands at about 1400-1500 m in a variety of substrates.

* cyatophylls are the bracts that surround the inflorescence proper in many members of the Euphorbiaceae.

Plant in cultivation. Scanned slide.

Pelargonium incrassatum

In her book “Namaqualand in flower” (1972), Sima Eliovson referred to this species as follows:
“Quite the most outstanding Pelargonium in Namaqualand, this has thick clusters of brilliant cerise-purple flowers that grow beside the brightest annuals and can be spotted from afar. They generally lie scattered in little clearings among orange daisies in the fields around Springbok amd Kamieskroon, where they are plentiful.”
Charles Craib in his beautiful and interesting book “Geophytic Pelargoniums” (2001), calls the species “one of South Africa’s most spectacular flowering plants.”

The plants are tuberous geophytes occurring in a narrow strip along South Africa’s west coast, from near the northern part of the Richtersveld to the Nardouw flats in the south.
Although the summers are very hot here, in winter it may be freezing cold.
The rainfall varies between 150 and 300 mm per year, mainly in winter.

When in flower, the plants are 20 to 30 cm tall. The flowers appear from August to October, usually with 20-40 (sometimes as many as 60) together in a large cluster on a single stalk. They show a wide range of colours, from red and pinkish purple to mauve, pale lilac and even nearly white.

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Crassula nemorosa (part 1 of 2)

These charming little plants have erect or sprawling stems , 4-10 (-15) cm long.
They are geophytes, with many small tubers (rarely over 0.5 cm in diameter).
The slightly fleshy leaves are grey-green or greyish brown and the star- to cup-shaped flowers are pale yellowish-green to brown with 2-3.5 mm long lobes.
While the flowers usually appear between June and August, depending on rainfall this may also happen at other times.
The distribution area ranges from South Namibia to the Little Karoo and the Eastern Cape, but the plants only occur in sheltered spots on rocky slopes and in crevices.

Bulbine haworthioides

Comparing the first three pictures (taken in the wild) to the fourth (taken in cultivation), it may be hard to believe that they represent the same species.

The plants occur in quartz gravel on hillocks on the southwestern Knersvlakte.
They are geophytes, with a tuber up to 1.5 cm tall and 2 cm wide and 8-14 leaves, which are about 5 mm wide and die back at flowering.
The inflorescence is to 15 cm tall, with about 10 flowers, appearing in late spring / early summer (October-November).

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