Mesembs Archives - Page 4 of 21

Smicrostigma viride

This species is typical for the Little Karoo and has some peculiar characteristics: the leaves are fused at their base, forming a long sheath, so that the plant looks like a stem succulent, and the flowers do not close again once they are open.
At first sight, the plants resemble certain Ruschia’s and they have flowers like Erepsia, but still they are usually easy to recognise. Actually, the plants are so different from others that the genus is monotypic. In other words: there is only one species of Smicrostigma.

The plants are up to 60 cm tall with more or less erect branches becoming woody with age. They have leaves with a sheath up to 2.5 cm long and shorter free parts with a recurved tip.
The solitary flowers are to 3 cm in diameter and have a very short stalk. They are said to flower from spring to summer, but in my area they can be found in flower the whole year round.
The anthers and stigma are completely hidden by a group of light pink to usually purple petals and the seed capsules have 7-10 compartments.

Although the species is largely endemic to the Little Karoo, it is found from Uniondale westwards to Worcester, mainly in dry shrubby vegetation on sandy to loamy soils.

Gibbaeum angulipes

Although locally abundant, this species is known only from a few sites in the Riversdale area, on N-facing slopes in bare loamy places with a sprinkling of quartz pebbles.

The plants form huge mats (up to 2 m in diameter) of erect leaves. These are about 2.5 cm long, slightly keeled, silvery or greyish (sometimes green) and somewhat velvety.
The flowers are purple-pink, about 2.5 cm in diameter, appearing in October-December.

The first 2 pictures were taken early November 2009, the other ones mid September 2011.

Argyroderma fissum (Vingertjies, vingervygies)

A. fissum is said to be the most primitive of the Argyrodermas.
Often the word primitive has a somewhat negative connotation, but in biology that is not the case. There it means things such as:
characteristic of an early stage of development or
not very much evolved from its ancestors and therefore less specialised.
The result is that A. fissum looks rather different from other species in the genus.

It is the most common and widespread Argyroderma, occurring from N. of Klawer to N. of Bitterfontein, often found on loamy flats and hillsides next to quartz gravel and in full sun. It often occurs in great numbers.
The rainfall in the area is less than 100 mm per year and typically occurs in winter.

With age the plants form mats of up to 30 cm across. As they get older, the centre dies off, but new branches keep appearing at the outside of the clumps.
The leaves are finger-shaped, 1.2-6 cm long and 0.8-1.8 cm wide and grey-green to bluish-green, often with yellowish or purplish tips and margins.
There is a great variation in the colour and size of the flowers; they are up to 4.5 cm in diameter and may be yellow, mauve or magenta, sometimes bright red, often with a white centre. They appear in June – September.

Gibbaeum album (Volstruistone)

Because of the peculiar oblique shape and white colour of its leaves this is a very distinct and therefore easy to recognise species. It only occurs in a few sites in a small area in S.W. Little Karoo, among quartz pebbles on shale in the Northern foothills of the Langeberg.

The leaves are dissimilar and form an obliquely ovoid body 2-3 cm long, densely covered with short fine white hairs (album=white); bodies solitary or forming compact clusters.
The flowers are white or pink, to 3 cm in diameter; they appear in November-December.

The last picture also shows Gibbaeum (Muiria) hortenseae.

Conophytum subfenestratum (a.k.a. C. pillansii)

Predominantly a Knersvlakte species, it occurs rather widespread from northeast of Bitterfontein to just north of Vanrhynsdorp in shale and on loamy flats covered with quartz, rarely on low quartz ridges.
On these ridges, the plants often form clusters, but as a rule they are single.
The smooth or shortly fuzzy bodies are up to 2,5 cm long and in diameter, globose, but flattened and slightly lobed on the top. They are pale green to yellowish or reddish at the end of the growing season, densely spotted with translucent dots, which usually coalesce to form an indistinct window (subfenestratum = somewhat windowed). Usually the bodies are buried up to their windows.
The slightly scented flowers are open during the day, up to 2 cm in diameter, pale to deep pink or magenta, rarely white. They appear in March-May.

Cheiridopsis denticulata (C. candidissima)

Forming dense clumps of up to 25 cm tall and 40 cm across, this may well be the most robust species in the genus.
It has silvery white to pale bluish grey (sometimes grey-green) leaves up to 11 cm long and 1.5 cm thick; they are triangular in cross-section and sometimes toothed (to quote “Plants of the Greater Cape Floristic Region”: absent one year but fiercely present the next). When no teeth are present, plants may be easily confused with C. robusta.
The flowers are big (up to 7 cm in diameter), on long, sturdy stalks. They may be white, cream-coloured or pale yellow, are often purplish at the tips and on the outside and appear in August-September. The fruits have 12-20 compartments.

The species is widespread on sandy flats and slopes (also often growing in dry river beds) in Namaqualand (from the south-eastern Richtersveld south to Bitterfontein).

#1: mid May 2007

# 2,3 and 4: mid July 2011

#5: late August 2007

# 6 and 7: late August 2016

Diplosoma luckhoffii

There’s still a lot to learn about these intriguing dwarfs.
They are said to be short-lived and surviving lengthy droughts only as seed. According to others, in the resting state the plants are just almost invisible because at that time so little of them remains at or above ground level.
In the growing period they have highly succulent, soft and tender leaves of which the surface is covered with big cells looking like blisters.
Including the flower (to 3 cm in diameter) the plants are up to 3 cm tall. The flowering period is June to September.

The plants are only known from a few localities in the Vredendal – Vanrhynsdorp area, where they sometimes form dense groups in suitable places (hills of very saline soils covered with quartz gravel). The rainfall here is between 75 and 200 mm per year.

According to some sources, cultivation is very difficult. Others say the plants are easy to grow as long you bear in mind they are winter growers and maintain a strict resting period without any watering but with ample shade.

The pictures were taken in mid-August 2018, at about 10.30 in the morning, unfortunately too early for showing the flowers (they only open around noon).

Delosperma schimperi

Most people will not think immediately of Ethiopia as a habitat for Mesembs, but it harbours at least two species of Delosperma and I was fortunate to find one of them in flower near Dilb in early December last year. The species is also found in Eritrea and occurs on basaltic outcrops at about 3000-4100 m altitude.
In the Ethiopian Red List (2005) it is classified as endangered.

The plants have thickened roots and form loose cushions or hang down from vertical cliffs with stems up to 75 cm long.
The leaves are about 1 cm long and more or less round; they have long papillae at their tips somewhat resembling a diadem as in Trichodiadema.
The flowers are about 2.5 cm in diameter and have purple petals which are shorter than the calyx lobes.

Growing together with Aloe ankoberensis and
Aeonium leucoblepharum

Cephalophyllum pillansii

One of the compact Cephalophyllums, with blue-green to bright green leaves up to 13 cm long.
The flowers have yellow petals and purple-red to brown stamens; they appear from June to September.
The fruits have 10-20 compartments; the old ones often lie in a ring around the plant.

Occurring on loamy soil on flats in western Namaqualand.

Like many other Cephalophyllums, this is often a pioneer in disturbed places, such as roadsides. Together with the spectacular flowering, this makes it a very suitable garden plant and it is therefore commonly cultivated.

With Drosanthemum schoenlandii in the background

Lampranthus glaucus

Often cultivated for its showy flowers, this is a small shrub (to 25 cm tall) with erect to decumbent* branches.
The leaves are fused at their bases, compressed 3-angled in cross-section to sword-shaped, 0.6-3 cm long, rough with green dots and glaucous (covered with a greyish waxy bloom).
Usually the golden-yellow to lemon-yellow (rarely pale yellow-white) flowers are solitary. They are up to 3 (-5) cm in diameter and appear in June-October.

Occurring from the Gifberg to Cape Peninsula on seasonally wet sandstone or loam soils.
Pictures taken on the Gifberg, August 11 of this year.

* lying flat on the ground with raised tips.