What I find intriguing in this little annual, is the way the flowers open and rearrange their petals.
The flowers appear in October, are pink with a white or straw-coloured base and may be up to 2.5 cm in diameter.
The plants are up to 10 cm tall and 15 cm in diameter; the leaves are club-shaped, bright green but turning reddish when the flowers start appearing.
In the Tanqua Karoo and Little Karoo the species is locally abundant in disturbed places (usually in quartz).
Plants of this species are the largest in the genus and are sometimes nicknamed “elephant’s toilet paper” because of the enormous leaves. As a rule, they occur on sandy plains in southwestern Namibia and northwestern Namaqualand.
Although their lifespan is usually not more than two years, they may reach a height of 1.5 m.
At first, the plant forms a rosette of leaves with flowering side branches, after which the internodes in the rosette elongate and form new rosettes and flowering branches.
Usually the stems are clearly 4-angled and winged, up to as much as 4 cm in diameter.
The leaves are egg-shaped to triangular, with more or less undulating margins; they are very large (lower ones up to 40 x 25 cm), with small bladder-cells.
Flowers appear in Sept.-Nov.; they are 4-6 cm across, pink to pale pink, with a white or slightly green base and very numerous petals, staminodes and stamens. The fruits have 5 compartments.
Usually this is a low shrub up to 30 cm tall, but sometimes it has a different growth form (ranging from cushion-like to scrambling).
Its stems are weakly woody and have a conspicuous cork layer.
The yellow-green leaves are 4-ranked and almost cylindrical, with conspicuous and usually large bladders cells.
The flowers are 2-3.5 cm in diameter, pale yellow, sometimes pale pink or salmon; they appear in August-October and produce capsules with 4- to 5 compartments
Widespread on dry flats from Kenhardt and Gamoep via Vanrhynsdorp and Calvinia to Swellendam and Prince Albert.
These plants are geophytes with tuberous roots; they occur from the Cape Peninsula eastward to Port Elizabeth, growing in coastal dunes.
As a special adaptations to their sandy habitat, they have long creeping branches rooting at the nodes.
The Aizoaceae family does not have not many members that are either geophytic or adapted to a habitat of shifting sands, but this species somehow manages to belong to both categories.
One can find the plants in flower from spring to mid-summer. The flowers are 2-3 cm in diameter and yellow, mauve or salmon in colour, sometimes with a red hue.
The leaves are almost cylindrical or channeled (=canaliculatus).
Photographed near Jeffrey’s Bay 25 Oct. 2012.
Almost all Mesembs are leaf succulents, but this species is an exception.
On young stems, leaves are present for a short period, but they fall off as soon as the dry period sets in. The leaves are small but at the same time quite succulent. One would think it to be wasteful to invest a lot of energy in producing something that is used for only a short while. Nevertheless it seems to be a successful strategy, as the species is widespread and often locally abundant. They act as pioneers on disturbed loamy soils and that probably explains how they can afford to be wasteful with their resources. The disturbance will in most cases aerate the soil and make nutrients available, so that for some time food is present in abundance.
The plants may be up to 60 cm tall and occur from Namaqualand to the Eastern Cape.
The flowers are white, pink or purple, up to 1.5 cm across and appear in spring (September- November).
The big bladder cells that cover leaves and calyxes give the impression of beautiful jewellery, but their reason for being there is rather more prosaic. They function as external water storage for the plants (see post 17 Dec. 2012).
Together with the other members of the genus this is among the few stem succulents in the family. The short-lived leaves are provided at their base with a fringe of long hairs (cilia = lash).
The plants occur from Calvinia in the north to Ceres in the southwest and Willowmore in the southeast, usually as pioneers on dry flats and on roadsides.
The first picture was made in autumn (4 April 2007), the others in winter (early August to early September 2010).
When you look carefully at the following three pictures, you will see that the plant here is reduced to just a flower. As long as this is able to close the circle from seed to seed all is fine. These are annual plants, remember.
The last two pictures are basically the same. The first of the two shows a bit of the background as well, whereas in the last one the camera was tilted a bit downwards, so that attention is focused completely on the flower. I cannot really say one picture is better than the other; it depends on what story you want it to tell.
These annuals occur in enormous numbers in disturbed places in the Ceres Karoo. The flowers are up to 6 cm across and appear in September.
To be continued.
