Tag: Tanqua Karoo

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.

Mesembryanthemum subtruncatum

What I find intriguing in this little annual, is the way the flowers open and rearrange their petals.
The flowers appear in October, are pink with a white or straw-coloured base and may be up to 2.5 cm in diameter.
The plants are up to 10 cm tall and 15 cm in diameter; the leaves are club-shaped, bright green but turning reddish when the flowers start appearing.

In the Tanqua Karoo and Little Karoo the species is locally abundant in disturbed places (usually in quartz).

Didymaotus lapidiformis (tweeling-vygie)

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