natural hybrids Archives - enjoysucculents

Gibbaeum (Muiria) hortenseae

These peculiar and very distinctive plants form little clumps of soft and velvety-hairy* leaf-bodies which are about 4 cm tall and 3 cm in diameter.
During the long resting period, the bodies are completely enclosed in the dry sheath-like remains of the previous pairs of leaves.
Because the leaves are completely united, the flowers have to rupture the tops of the bodies in order to emerge. They are about 2 cm in diameter, white to mauve and appear from November to Januari.
The plants are locally abundant on quartz outcrops, but are known from only one location (west of Barrydale in the western Little Karoo), in a highly saline area. They grow together with G. album -see first picture- and sometimes hybridise.

In his book Flowering stones and Midday flowers, Gustav Schwantes dedicates nearly 3 pages to this species and he is clearly highly impressed by it, as witnessed by the following remarks:
“The plant exhibits the highest expression of leaf succulence in the whole plant kingdom.
There is nothing of greater interest among the Mesembryanthemaceae than this living creature which is so unusual in shape and structure”.

*the hairs are among the longest in the family.

Pachypodium brevicaule (part 1 of 3)

For a little prologue to this post, see the preceding one: Kalanchoe integrifolia).

Although Mt. Ibity is perhaps the most accessible place, P. brevicaule also occurs in a couple of other habitats in Madagascars central highlands.
Plants can be found from Ambositra to Antananarivo in quartz rock at altitudes between 1400 and 1600 m.
In some spots where P. brevicaule grows together with P. densiflorum or P. rosulatum, one can come across hybrids. Judging from the long flower stalks, I suppose the plants shown in pictures # 3 and 4 belong to either of these hybrids.
The first two pictures show views from where P. brevicaule grows on Mt. Ibity. On # 2 you can see the quarry belonging to the massive cement factory nearby.

xAstroworthia bicarinata (Astroloba corrugata x Haworthia pumila)

A while ago, on a trip from Montagu to the southwest entrance of Anysberg Nature Reserve, friend Marion and I came across a couple of plants we had never seen before.
They grew in a flat area with low shrubs and other plants, including several specimens of Haworthia pumila.
It didn’t require a lot of brain power to assume that the unknown plants were hybrids, with H. pumila as one parent -almost certainly the mother. What the other parent might be remained guess work, because even after a long search in the area, we did not come across a likely candidate.

Last week I was looking up some information for a talk on succulents in the Montagu area that I was asked to give and that search solved the problem of the missing father.
In Haworthia revisited, Bruce Bayer states under H. pumila :”It hybridizes with Astroloba muricata (= A. corrugata, FN)”
In the Illustrated Handbook of Succulent Plants, N. L. Meyer & G. F. Smith mention the genus X Astroworthia with 1 member (xA. bicarinata), remarking: “This is the naturally occurring hybrid Astroloba corrugata x Haworthia margaretifera (= H. pumila, FN)”

The pictures below show the proud parents:
H. pumila and A. corrugata resp.

xAstroworthia bicarinata (Astroloba corrugata x Haworthia pumila)

The pictures below show the proud parents:
H. pumila and A. corrugata resp.

Crassula congesta (2)

In his revision of the genus Crassula (see yesterday’s post), Toelken makes the following remark with regard to the 2 subspecies: “…it is significant that each one can be identified without hesitation. No plants with intermediate characters have been recorded..”

To my mind, there is little doubt that the next picture shows ssp. congesta.

But the plants in the next two ones look like intermediate forms to me.

The last picture was taken just south of Calitzdorp and shows what I think is a hybrid between Crassula congesta ssp. laticephala (which was not found on this particular spot, but does occur in the general area) and C. columnaris (which was growing close by).

Tylecodon paniculatus X wallichii

It is not often that one finds natural hybrids and it is even more rare to see them growing cheek by jowl with both parents.

The three plants in the centre of the picture are- from left to right- T. wallichii, T. paniculatus and their hybrid offspring.

Both parents are widely distributed in the western part of South Africa. T. paniculatus is reported to flower between November and January, and T. wallichii from December through February. This overlap in distribution as well as in flowering period would explain the opportunity for hybridising.
When you have a good look at the picture, you will see that both T. paniculatus and the hybrid are pushing out inflorescences. The plants were photographed on 11 September 2010 (at the eastern side of Skitterykloof), so apparently the flowering period of T. paniculatus is rather longer than indicated in the literature.

Two interesting Euphorbias from the southern Great Karoo. Part 2: The start of a hybrid swarm?

Because this area harbours a variety of interesting succulents, we had high expectations of what we might come across. Nevertheless, the rest of the trip was rather boring. That is, till the moment George pointed out a big clump of what we both thought was Euphorbia stellispina, in a field next to the road. Finding that species in itself, would have been nice enough, but when we walked up to the plant, we discovered that it was much more special: about all the plant’s features were perfectly in between those of E. stellispina and E. heptagona. The result was spectacular.

Two pictures of the purported hybrid

When we searched the immediate surroundings, we found plants of both these species, which strengthened the idea that our plant was a hybrid between the two.

E. stellispina

E. heptagona

To make the find even more exciting, after some looking around we came across another hybrid between the same parents.

More interesting than beautiful

Here the results of the mix are totally different and far less appealing. On the other hand it is exciting to witness what may be the beginning of a hybrid swarm and it would be interesting to follow the population’s behaviour over some time.