Tag: Namaqualand

Mesembryanthemum (Prenia) pallens

Common name: Skotteloor

This species produces firm creeping stems up to over 60 cm long.
The leaves vary from narrowly elongate to egg-shaped and are flatly triangular in cross-section, grey green, up to 2 cm long and 0.6 cm wide. The basal leaves are erect and larger.
From September to December the plants display their pale pink or white, sometimes yellow, flowers, which are up to 3.5 cm across.

The species occurs from Namaqualand to the dry regions of the winter rainfall area of the Western Cape and is rather common on flats and among rocks and abundant as a pioneer in disturbed places such as roadsides.

Cephalophyllum spissum (skaapvygie, kwartsvygie)

These are compact plants (spissum = dense, close together), up to 10 cm tall and up to 15 cm in diameter.  They have dark green leaves which are 4.5-7 cm long and triangular to slightly round in cross-section.
The beautiful flowers have stalks to 5 cm long and are nearly 4 cm across. Compared to most other Cephalophyllums, they are rather subdued in colour (purple to salmon-pink, with a paler centre); they appear in July-August.

The plants are often confused with C. caespitosum but they have fruits with 11-15 instead of 9-10 compartments.
They occur in the southern Knersvlakte in loamy soil among white quartz pebbles; often together with Argyroderma delaetii.

Anacampseros lanceolata

Common names: boesmansuring, hasiekos.

This clump-forming species is similar to A. telephiastrum, but up to 10 cm tall and thereby the largest member of the genus.
Its leaves are lance-shaped*, to 4 cm long and to 2 cm wide ( wider than thick), rounded below but almost flat above and ending in a minute spiny tip; they are blue-green at the beginning of the growing season, but become wrinkled and brown at flowering time. The white hairs in the leaf axils are often longer than the leaves.
The inflorescence is up to 25 cm tall, with 1 – 4 pink or white flowers, which are  to 3 cm in diameter; the petals are almost as wide as long, with a pointed tip. Flowering time is October to December.

The plants are found on rocky flats or slopes from the Richtersveld  to the western Karoo, Little Karoo and Langkloof.    Anacampserotaceae

* a shape which is broadest at about a third from the base and gradually gets narrower till it ends in an acute tip.

 

Crassula deceptor

Guest column by Theo Heijnsdijk

Many Crassulas are beautiful mimicry plants. This one owes its name deceptor (= impostor) to the fact that the gray-green rosettes set with small dots look like small angular stones and in their habitat in southern Namibia and Namaqualand are hidden amongst the quartz stones that occur there.
The species was found in 1897 by Alston (of Avonia alstonii fame) and described by Schönland & Baker in 1902. Schönland later changed the name to Crassula deceptrix. This suggests that he considered cheating to be a trait that suits women more than men. But the real reason was that the word Crassula is feminine, and he thought (wrongly) that the species name had to be feminine as well. Later (1974) the name change was revoked.
Crassula deceptor is variable in shape and size. In nature, the rosettes are about 2.5 cm in diameter and up to about 8 cm tall. The plant in figure 1 has the same width.

Fig. 1: Crassula deceptor resembles a jagged piece of stone 

The stems divide dichotomously and form a compact cluster over time.
For me in the Netherlands, the plant always blooms around October. As is the case with many Crassulas, this is not a spectacular but nevertheless graceful sight. The plants form branched flowering stems which protrude well above them and produce several tiny cream-green flowers which turn brown after flowering (fig. 2).

Fig. 2: Crassula deceptor in bloom

As for its cultivation: full sun, little water in summer and none in winter. With a less sunny location and/or a lot of water, they do not retain the compact shape. Be careful with water staying behind on the rosettes.

C. cornuta (figure 3), also described by Schönland, is nowadays considered to be synonymous with C. deceptor. Yet it clearly deviates from the standard form of the species. The leaves are longer, more pointed and much lighter in colour.

Fig 3

For the sake of completeness, it is worth mentioning that there are also quite a few hybrids in which C. deceptor is one of the parents. I have a hybrid of C. deceptor x C. susannae (fig. 4); the diameter of this plant is just 2 cm. 


Fig. 4

In ‘Crassula’ by Gordon Rowley, this cross is called ‘Dorothy’. He also mentions the following  hybrids: ‘Frosty’ (C. deceptor x tecta); ‘Gandalf’ (C.deceptor x mesembryanthemopsis); ‘Moonglow’ (C. deceptor x perfoliata var. falcata); ‘Shogun’ (C. deceptor x hemisphaerica) and the multihybrid ‘Star Child’ (C. deceptor x ‘Starbust’), ‘Starbust’ being a hybrid of C. ausensis x pyramidalis.


Fig. 5: Leaves of C. ‘Frosty’ 


Fig.6: Flowers of C. ‘Frosty’


Fig. 7: C. deceptor in habitat

Literature:
B.K. Boom (1980), De Crassula’s van onze collecties, Succulenta 59 [8]: 176-179
Mia C. Karsten (1941), Zuid-Afrikaansche succulente reisherinneringen I, de botanische tuin te Stellenbosch (6), Succulenta 23 [6]: 65
Gordon Rowley (2003), Crassula, Cactus & Co

First published in Succulenta 89 [2]: febr. 2010. Translation FN.

For more habitat pictures and info, see
A jewel in the Crassula crown: C. deceptor

Cephalophyllum framesii

Like many other Cephalophyllums, this species can quickly spread as a pioneer on disturbed or alluvial soil. This ability, combined with flowers in a wide variety of colours, makes them good ground cover subjects for gardens in a suitable climate.

The plants have dark green leaves, club-shaped, and 3-7 cm long.
In June-August, they produce flowers to 4 cm in diameter, with cream-coloured, yellow, pink or magenta petals and yellow or magenta stamens.
They occur in Namaqualand (Riethuis to Vredendal) and the northern Tanqua Karoo.

Othonna intermedia

Of the about 100 species of Othonna, roughly a third qualify as succulents. Nine of these are deciduous geophytes (leafless during the resting period) and O. intermedia is a member of this group.

A resinous underground tuber produces a number of wedge-shaped, fleshy leaves up to 7 x 4 cm in size and green to blue-green or greyish in colour.
The yellow flower heads are 0.8-1 cm in diameter and appear between May and September (mostly in June and July).
Endemic to the Knersvlakte, where it occurs in quartz patches.

Monilaria moniliformis

Common names: ertjievygie, pea mesemb, bobbejaanvingers.

The most distinct features of the genus Monilaria are the constricted stems and the persistent leaf bases which look like a  string of beads (Latin monilaria  = a collection of strings of pearls)
Each growing season, the plants form a short and a long leaf pair: the first pair is largely fused so that it looks like a  flattish, rounded body; the second pair emerges through the tip of this body and consists of elongated leaves which are cylindrical or almost triangular in cross-section and only fused at their bases.

M. moniliformis -the most well-known species of the genus- is a shrublet to 15 cm high, with barrel-shaped internodes which make it relatively easy to recognize the plants.
In July-August the flowers appear; they are to 4 cm across and have relatively long stalks (to 5 cm) and usually white petals ( sometimes tinged yellow); the filaments are white, orange, or purple.
The species occurs in the Vredendal-Vanrhynsdorp-Klawer area of southern Namaqualand), where it grows fully exposed, mostly on clay and quartz patches. This is the southernmost part of the distribution area of the genus.

Jordaaniella (Cephalophyllum) spongiosa (volstruisvygie, olifantsvy)

In “NAMAQUALAND, a succulent desert” by Cowling and Pierce, this species is described as “perhaps  Namaqualand’s showiest vygie” and that is saying a good deal. As it is also easy to grow, it makes a great garden subject in a suitable climate. It is widespread and common in its natural habitat, the sandy soil of Namaqualand’s coastal plain.

The plants are either creeping and rooting from the nodes, or forming a shrub up to 35 cm high, especially when there are other shrubs around to support them.
The branches are up to 1 cm across and the somewhat finger-shaped leaves may be up to 11 cm long.
In August – October, the plants produce spectacular flowers up to 10 cm across, pink to orange to red with a yellow to orange base. They are visited by several species of insects (see last picture) and have unusually high numbers of petals (230-270) and stamens (700-1050). The same goes for the number of compartments in the fruit (18-28).

Crassula macowaniana (papierbasplakkie)

Usually this is a robust, much-branched shrub up to over a meter tall, but in the Richtersveld it is sometimes only a few centimeters tall with creeping branches.
Its Afrikaans name (paperbark Crassula)  refers to the flaking bark covering the branches.
The leaves are variable in shape and size, linear to sword-shaped, green to brown or reddish, 25-60 (-80) mm long, and 3-15 mm wide. They have acute tips, but often these become dry and fall off (see last picture).
The flowers are white (often tinged pink), tubular, and 2.5-4 mm long; they appear in Oct.-Dec.
This species occurs from southwestern Namibia to near Clanwilliam, among boulders and on rocky, N-facing slopes.

Mesembryanthemum liliputanum (Phyllobolus abbreviatus)

Usually, this dainty geophyte (up to 5 cm tall) only has a few leaves and flowers on slightly woody stems produced from tuberous roots.
The leaves are 4-ranked and almost cylindrical, they are covered in big and beautiful water-storing bladder cells. The pale yellow flowers are about 2 cm in diameter and appear in August-October.

Occurring on shale or loamy soil covered with quartz pebbles in the Vanrhynsdorp area.