Great Karoo Archives - Page 3 of 11

Trichodiadema peersii

According to the literature, this is a more or less erect shrub up to 9 cm tall.
The leaves are 5-8 mm long and 4 mm wide and thick, tipped with a diadem consisting of 4-9 bristles*.
The white flowers are about 3.8 cm wide and appear in spring and summer: Sept.-Dec.; they produce fruits with 5 or 6 compartments.
The plants occur in the Willowmore district.

* In some of the plants shown here, the diadems have many more bristles. Because all other characteristics agree, I take it all pictures represent the same species.

Tanquana prismatica (part 1 of 2)

There are only three species of Tanquana; the other two being T. hilmarii and T. archeri (which I have never seen). All three used to be called Pleiospilos because of the dotted leaves, but actually the two genera are not closely related.
Over time T. prismatica may form clusters of up to 30 branches. The leaves are unequal, egg-shaped in young plants but more oblong later, with a length of 2.5-4 cm.
The strongly scented flowers are to 4 cm in diameter and appear from February to May.

The plants are not uncommon on stony flats in the Ceres-Laingsburg area, where they receive 100-150 mm rain per year, mainly in winter.

Below are some pictures to give you an idea of the conditions in the plants’ habitat.

Crassula corallina (part 1: subsp. corallina)

Plants of this subspecies are usually rather short-lived; they occur from southwestern Namibia southwards to Laingsburg and south-eastwards to Queenstown .
The branches are usually lying on the ground and rooting at the nodes.
The leaves are 3-5 mm long and 2-3 mm wide.
In December to April the plants are decorated with cream flowers.

Aloe striata ssp. striata

This is one of the very few southern African Aloes without spines on the edge of the leaves.
The stems are rarely over 30 cm long and the leaves are up to 60 cm long and 15 cm wide, from greenish-grey to pinkish-grey with not very distinct longitudinal stripes.
The flowers are bright orange or (rarely) yellow on inflorescences up to a meter tall and appear from winter to early spring (August-October).
On flats with deep loamy soils, the plants are often abundant, but they also occur on rocky slopes.
The plants are not grazed, so when you see a great many together, this is an indication of heavy overgrazing of the area in the past. They are widespread from Worcester in the Western Cape to Queenstown in the Eastern Cape.

Drosanthemum eburneum

Eburneus means ivory-white and refers to the colour of the flowers. These appear from June through September and are up to about 3 cm in diameter, rather big for the size of the plants.
The leaves are densely covered with papillae and 1-2 cm long.
The species has a relatively small distribution area in the southwest corner of the Great Karoo, from Sutherland to Matjiesfontein.

Stomatium difforme (part 2 of 2)

These pictures were taken in June and July (winter).

stomdiff 2009-07-03_DSC2046
stomdiff 2009-07-03_DSC2051 stomdiff 2009-06-06_DSC1958 stomdiff 2009-07-03 2049
stomdiff 2007-07-03_DSC2047

Stomatium difforme (part 1 of 2)

Like other Stomatiums, these plants form small to medium-sized cushions, which over time often die down from the centre.
The leaves are spatula-shaped to three-angled in cross-section and distinctly broadened towards the tips. The margins usually bear 3-6 (but sometimes up to 18) teeth, whereas the keel is either smooth or decorated with 1-3 teeth.
The flowers appear in September; they open in the evening, are to 22 mm in diameter and have bright yellow petals with red tips.
The plants are found in the southwest corner of the distribution area of Stomatium, on shallow gravel and stony ground in the Sutherland-Laingsburg area, where it can be quite cold in winter.

The pictures were taken in spring and summer, between mid October (#1) and mid January (#4).

Aloe microstigma (part 2 of 2)

The first two pictures show how the plants curve their leaves inwards as a protection against sun and wind in the dry season.

aloemicr 7318 2012-01-29

This picture was taken late January, the next one mid March.

aloemicrIMG_0689

aloemicr 9208 — Last two pictures are from mid August

aloemicr_DSC5715

Aloe microstigma (part 1 of 2)

Widespread from Ceres in the southwestern Cape to Albany in the Eastern Cape, this species is often a dominant feature of the landscape in the Little Karoo and southern parts of the Great Karoo. This is especially the case in the dry season, when the plants look distinctly reddish.
Usually the rosettes are single, but sometimes they form small groups; they are short-stemmed or (in old plants) with a stem up to half a meter long.
The leaves are long (about 30 cm) and rather narrow (about 6 cm at base), most of the time reddish-green -but see above. The name microstigma (very small spot) refers to the numerous white spots that are usually present on both sides of the leaves. The margins are armed with sharp teeth.
The inflorescences are up to 1 m tall, normally 2-3 per rosette, always undivided.
In most cases the flowers are bicoloured in red and yellow, being dull red in bud and turning yellow on opening ; sometimes they have only one colour, either red or yellow. They appear mainly from May to July.

Cheiridopsis namaquensis (part 1 of 2)

One of the many older names for this plant is Mesembryanthemum cigarettiferum.
Gustav Schwantes in his magnum opus “Flowering stones and Midday-Flowers” (1957) gives a wonderful description of the species, referring to that name as follows:
“…It was a small, tufted, branched plant, on which were a number of cylindrical structures with dry skins like paper bags; from each of them projected the tip of a pair of leaves at rest within. These paper bags were formed by the drying up of earlier leaf pairs which had been joined for a long way up. The young pair of leaves inside them was. however, much more deeply divided. The surrounding bags reminded Berger so strongly of the paper mouthpiece of a cigarette that he gave it the very descriptive name of Mesembryanthemum cigarettiferum, the Mesembryanthemum bearing cigarettes. The leaves at rest within the bags, when the plants had been potted up and started into growth, grew out of the bags and developed into thick, narrow leaves such as are often found in the Mesembryanthemaceae and produced from the centre an equally narrow pair of leaves, which, however, were joined for a considerable distance so that only the extreme ends of the leaves appeared as free tips. Within this pair of leaves, which looks like a cylinder with little horns at the top, the young, but deeply divided, pair develops; it draws on the pair surrounding it so that this finally becomes the protecting skin, the paper bags referred to above. Clearly this is a case of one of the many interesting contrivances for protecting the young growth from the rigors of the dry period. This protection is achieved here in the same way as in Ruschia pygmaea (see picture #2, FN) and many other species of Mesembryanthemaceae.”

The plants form compact clumps with many branches, up to 20 cm in diameter, with
light blue-grey to green-grey leaves.
The flowers appear from July to October and are about 4.5 cm in diameter; they open in the early afternoon.
Widespread on shale slopes and flats at an altitude of 300-950m from Namaqualand to the western Little Karoo and the only Cheiridopsis that occurs this far south.

Pictures taken near Matjiesfontein on the following dates:
#1 31 Jan. 2009
#2 18 Feb. 2007
#3 and #4 17 May 2008