Tag: miniatures

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).

Gibbaeum pilosulum

Although in  several species of Gibbaeums the leaves have a velvety  cover, G. pilosulum is the only one with long, erect hairs. Apart from this, the species is very similar to G. nuciforme, which sometimes grows  less than a kilometre away.

The plants form compact mats to 13 cm in diameter, embedded in the ground. There are up to 10 leaf pairs, which are united and form egg-shaped, green to yellowish green bodies 0.5- 2 cm across with a short fissure at the tip.
The flowers are 1.2 – 1.6 cm in diameter and bright pink to purple; they appear in July-August.

Found in the western Little Karoo (Ladismith-Barrydale area), usually in quartz patches together with G. heathii.

 

 

Antimima fenestrata (part 1 of 2)

This is the last of the Antimima trio I mentioned before (see A. evoluta and A. turneriana).
The plants are unlike any other succulent (although when I saw them first, they strangely enough reminded me of Mammillaria saboae) and form attractive compact shrublets to 12 cm tall, looking like a miniature tree.
The mauve to magenta flowers are 1.5 cm in diameter and appear in June-July.

To be found on limestone outcrops with marble on the southern Knersvlakte.


Antimima turneriana

This is the second member of the Antimima trio that I mentioned in the preceding post (Antimima evoluta).
These plants forms compact clumps up to 5 cm tall.
The leaves are up to 1.5 cm long and 0.8 cm wide and thick, keeled and with tough and hard margins; usually with convex sides.
Usually the flowers come in threes but sometimes they are solitary. They are pinkish-purple and 1.8 cm in diameter; they appear in June-July ( photographed 23 July 2017).

Occurring in crevices of white quartz, marble or limestone on the southern Knersvlakte.

Antimima evoluta

During my second trip this year to Namaqualand, I came across a trio of interesting and beautiful Antimimas which I had never seen in the wild before. Two of the 3  (A. fenestrata and A. turneriana) were in flower, but the one pictured here flowers in October and had only just woken up by the looks of it. All the plants were growing on low limestone hills in a spot maybe 100×100 m.

Antimima evoluta forms rounded clumps up to 5 cm tall, consisting of bodies about 4 mm long and wide.
At the end of the growing period, the pairs of old leaves dry up and form a white sheath protecting the new pairs during the hot and dry resting period.
In October the plants are decorated with magenta flowers up to 1.7 mm in diameter.

The species occurs on the Knersvlakte, extending eastwards to Loeriesfontein, and grows in crevices on slopes of white quartz or limestone mixed with marble.

Pictures taken 26th July 2017


Conophytum minusculum ssp. minusculum

This year, I was fortunate enough to make two trips to Namaqualand.  One of the delights of these trips was seeing C. minusculum ssp. minusculum in flower (pictures made 13th May), and in full growth (pictures dated 27th July). All pictures were made on the Gifberg.

The plants are quite variable and form low mats or domes of slightly keeled bodies with a shining green or purplish top, usually with conspicuous lines. The flowers appear mainly in March-June and are huge in comparison to the small bodies, magenta or rose, rarely white.
Found from the Cederberg north and west growing on Table Mountain sandstone, usually with moss and often in damp depressions.
The plants prefer acid soil in cultivation.


With Crassula tomentosa var. interrupta

Crassula barklyi (“Bandaged finger”)

Plants of this species are sparingly to densely branched (usually from the base) and form clusters up to 9 cm in diameter.
The columnar plant bodies are usually erect (rarely more or less flat on the ground);  20-90 mm long and 6-15 mm thick.
Flowering occurs from May to October;  the flask-shaped flowers have cream, 9-11 mm long petals.
The species is found in the western part of Namaqualand from near Port Nolloth to the Vanrhynsdorp area, on exposed quartz gravel flats and gentle slopes, rarely on rocky outcrops and in shallow pans on rocks.


Conophytum calculus ssp. calculus

The Latin word calculus means pebble and in this case probably refers to both the roundness and the firmness of the plant bodies.
These bodies are to 30 mm diameter, ball- to barrel-shaped, very firm, whitish-green to pale yellowish-green, without any markings; they form a hemisphere with age.
The flowers are open at night (sometimes staying open during cool mornings) and are said to smell strongly like cloves or carnations; they are golden yellow to deep reddish orange and appear in April-June.
The plants occur in full sun on salty quartz flats and gentle slopes in the Knersvlakte.

First picture taken 10th Sept. 2010; others 12th May 2017

Argyroderma delaetii (part 1 of 2)

No less than 25 synoniems have been recorded for this species, so it will come as no surprise that it is quite variable.
As a rule, the plants consist of only one pair of leaves, rarely 2 or 3. These leaf-pairs are 20-50 mm long and 15-30 mm wide, sunken into the ground. Old leaves stay on the plants for 1 or 2 years.
The flowers appear in April – June; they are 20-50 mm in diameter and may be white, pink, red , magenta, or yellow (see part 2). Even within one population one can come across all these colours.
The plants are locally abundant on flats or slopes rich in quartz pebbles in the Vanrhynsdorp area.

The first 3 pictures were taken on 30 March 2012, # 4  early next morning. Last one: 3 Sept. 2010


 

 

Lithops karasmontana ssp. karasmontana var. karasmontana

Lithops karasmontana occurs only in Namibia and is a very variable species with 3 subspecies, one of them with 4 varieties.

Var. karasmontana is found to the west and southwest of the Great Karasberg and on its own supplies most of the variability in the species, ranging from opaque and uniformly coloured plants to ones with narrow channels and markings and others with more or less translucent open windows.  All this combined with a great variation in colours, from bluish-white to yellowish brown and brick red.
The flowers are white and usually 2.5-3.5 cm in diameter.

The plants figuring here, were photographed on a rose quartz outcrop near Grunau.

lithkarakarkar 2007-09-09 IMG_2732

lithkarakarkar 2872

lithkarakarkar 2873

lithkarakarkar 2877