This is one of the more easily recognized mesembs, only known from the Prince Albert area, where it occurs on flats and hills with broken dolerite and quartz gravel.
The old name Bijlia cana cannot be used anymore; vernacular names are Prince Albert vygie, pangavygie and skewevygie.
The plants grow in small clumps of smooth and hard, boat-like but very asymmetric leaves, which are almost as broad as thick in the upper half and pale greyish green to pinkish/yellowish white.
In July-August they produce bright yellow or orange-yellow, short-stalked flowers to about 3.5 cm in diameter.
Stomatium is one of the few genera of the Aizoaceae with obviously scented flowers. This species even derives its name from that fact (suaveolens = with a sweet smell).
The plants form compact, flat to somewhat rounded clumps with rough leaves which are 1-2 cm long, 0.9-1.5 cm wide and 0.7-0.9 cm thick.
Usually the yellow flowers appear in May-July; they are to 1.5 cm in diameter and open in the evening.
The species occurs on flat rock slabs (see first picture) in the Fraserburg – Sutherland – Williston area, where severe frost is a normal phenomenon in winter.
In the second picture you may also spot Crassula corallina.
This widespread and often locally common taxon occurs from southwestern Namibia to near Vanrhynsdorp on sandy/ gravelly/rocky slopes and flats, often under bushes.
It is a dwarf plant 1-8 cm tall, usually with many short branches and forming small tufts.
As shown by the pictures, the leaves are highly variable in shape, size, colour and texture; they are very thick, 0.3-1.5 x 0.3-1 cm in size and usually egg- to lance-shaped with blunt tips, green, grey-green, brown to deep red, sometimes even white.
Most often the leaves are smooth, but sometimes covered with papillae or fine hairs. They are irregularly arranged (not in 4 obvious ranks), with invisible internodes; eventually they shrivel up completely but they remain attached to the stems.
The small flowers are cream or white and appear in Dec.-June.
Although this species is widespread from the southern Great Karoo and the Montagu area to Somerset East, it is rarely common. It most often grows in shallow soil on rocky outcrops, on gravelly slopes and in crevices; usually on a north/north-east facing aspect.
As the pictures show, the plants are very variable.
Most often, the stems are erect, only rarely decumbent*. They are completely covered by the leaves, which are arranged in four neat ranks so that a quadrangular column is formed. This may be 0.6-2 cm in diameter and up to 25 cm tall (usually much shorter). Once a stem has flowered, it dies back, but new ones are formed at the base.
The leaves are green to grey-green or reddish-brown and the flowers white or cream-coloured.
Flowering time is spring: Aug.-Oct.
* creeping on the ground with the tips raised.
Synonyms: C. quadrangula, C. cylindrica, C. archeri.
As this species is easy to grow, it is often encountered in cultivation. In nature it is restricted to a narrow band along the northern foothills of the Langeberg Mountains, where it is locally abundant in shallow clayey soil rich in quartzite pebbles.
The plants form tufts -often 5 to 10 cm across- of densely crowded leaves, with rather sharp edges and convex sides. They are firm to the touch and greyish to greenish in colour.
In Aug.-Oct. they produce dark pink to light purple flowers, about 1.5 cm in diameter.
Some forms of this species are among the most beautiful that Crassula has to offer and in such a big genus with many attractive species, that’s quite something. As the pictures show, the plants are variable in many respects, especially shape, size and arrangement of the leaves.
When not in flower, the plants are up to 8 cm tall, often with several short branches. Each branch forms a short, 4-angled column up to 2.5 cm in diameter, bearing closely packed leaves which are 0.6-1.5 (-2) cm long and 0.3-1 (1.5) cm wide.
The leaves are acute or obtuse, flat or slightly concave above and very convex below, somewhat boat-shaped and densely covered with hard, almost spherical papillae.
Old leaves will shrivel a lot, but stay attached to the branches.
In December-March the plants produce miniature flowers in small clusters on peduncles 2-8 cm long.
The species is widely distributed in south-western Namibia and in north-western South Africa as far east as Kakamas and south to Vanrhynsdorp, usually on gentle slopes or on rocky outcrops, often among quartz gravel.
Didymaotus means twin-flowered and refers to the way in which (usually) a flower is formed on each side of the leaf-pair – a feature which is not found elsewhere in the family.
The plant bodies are single or form compact little clumps with age. Each body consists of leaves up to 4 cm long, broad and thick, usually greyish green or brownish-reddish.
The flowers are up to 4 cm in diameter, usually pink/purple, rarely white. They appear in September-October.
This curious plant is found in only a few localities in the Tanqua and southern Ceres Karoo, almost always together with Lithops comptonii. The rainfall occurs mainly in winter here.
More information can be found here: http://www.plantzafrica.com/plantcd/didylapid.htm
Barbata means bearded and it would be hard to come up with a more apt name for this interesting little gem which is not just beautiful, but also interesting in an ecological sense.
The pictures show how dramatically the appearance of the plants changes between late autumn and late spring. Please bear in mind that the plants occur in the southern hemisphere, and also that they only grow in the cooler and wetter months (autumn to early spring).
In nature, these plants are short-lived (1-2 years). They are so-called monocarpic, which means they die after flowering (new rosettes may be produced at the base).
Their leaves are variable in shape and about 1-2 cm long and 2-3.5 cm wide. They are fringed with relative long hairs (cilia), which may be up to 0.5 cm in length and are able to absorb dew. Over a hundred years ago, Marloth found out that plants of this species could absorb in this way more than 5 % of their weight per night.
Although the plants are stemless, they are up to 30 cm tall when in flower (September-November).
This subspecies is widespread from the Cederberg to the Little Karoo, always occurring in small numbers, as a rule in shade, under shrubs or on rocky slopes.
Ssp. broomii is only known from near Victoria West and mainly differs in the much shorter cilia (less than 1 mm).
Mid May (Late autumn)End of JulyEarly AugustEarly AugustLate SeptemberEarly OctoberEnd of October (Late Spring)
With summer approaching, the rosettes have closed to minimize transpiration. The cover of long hairs also acts as insulation against strong light and desiccating winds.
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.
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.
pictures 1-3 taken late March 2012#4: mid May 2017
