Tag: Namibian succulents

Mesembryanthemum barklyi (olifantsoutslaai)

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.

A jewel in the Crassula crown: C. deceptor

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.

Crassula tomentosa, part 2: var. glabrifolia (v. interrupta):

This variety does not become taller than 10-30 cm when in flower and usually has many rosettes.
The leaves are apparently arranged in 2 rows, 0.5-1.5 (-2.5) cm long and (0.5-) 0.8-3 cm wide, densely hairy to smooth and with longer hairs at the margins. Even when flowering, the leaves stay close together.

Found from southern Namibia, Bushmanland and Namaqualand to near Laingsburg, usually in rock crevices or under overhanging rocks.

The first two pictures show plants in the resting period, the other two are of plants in active growth.


Crassula tomentosa, part 1: var. tomentosa

When in flower the plants are usually 30-60 cm tall; they consist of one to a few rosettes.
The leaves are tightly packed but become more separated when flowering. They are 2-8 (sometimes 10) cm long and 1-2.5 cm wide, usually densely hairy and with longer hairs  (cilia) at the margin.

The plants are found from southwest Namibia along the western coast of South Africa to the Cape Peninsula and the western Little Karoo to near Laingsburg. They often grow in coastal sands, but also on gravelly slopes and larger rocks.

Monsonia (Sarcocaulon) multifida

One cannot help but wonder how these little beauties survive the cruel conditions in their homeland, a small area on both sides of the Orange river, some 10-60 km from the sea, where they grow on rocky ridges and in stabilised sandy places amid large sand dunes.
From November to May the plants are dormant and leafless and in this period they are often sand blasted by very strong winds and sometimes buried in sand drifts for weeks or even months.
Winter is the growing period, with most activity going one from June to September.

The plants have a deep, swollen root system and are up to 4 cm tall with one or a few horizontal branches; these are whitish to blackish-brown and 1-2 cm thick. The branches are spineless or have blunt remains of leaf stalks up to 0.6 cm long. Flowering may occur in most months (except Jan.- Febr. and May-June). The flowers are 2.5-3 cm across and white, pale pink or magenta with a dark red throat; rarely they are completely white.