Diplosoma

Compact, dwarf, highly succulent perennials forming clumps with age; with dry, dormant stage; each stem annually producing 2 opposite leaves, enclosed by brown to black sclerotic sheaths derived from leaf bases of previous year; root system short, fibrous. Leaves spreading horizontally to +/- upright, shortly and obliquely united at base, soft and tender with hyaline dots, reddish in colour, +/- 25 mm long, 5 mm broad, first leaf pair persistent, hidden inside previous year's sheaths, second pair only basally connate and short-lived; flowers breaking through connate base of last leaf pair. Flowers solitary or in 2s or 3s, terminal, sessile between leaf bases, ebracteate, +/- 25 mm diameter; opening at noon, closing in evening. Sepals 5-7, unequal, roundish. Petals 2- or 3-seriate, linear, purple, basally white. Stamens with papillate bases, surrounded by staminodes (purplish black in D. luckhoffii (L.Bolus) Schwantes ex Ihlenf.). Nectary a dark green, slightly crenulate ring. Ovary flat or pear-shaped at top; placentas parietal; stigmas 5-7, filiform. Fruit a 5-7-locular capsule, of Mitrophyllum type; flat; without any closing devices; expanding keels broad, dark brown, ending either in an awn or a wing; covering membranes present; closing bodies 0. Seeds pear-shaped, small. x = 9 (1 report). F lowering from winter to spring. D istinguishing characters: compact dwarf plants forming clumps with age; leaves soft, often reddish, with large micro-windows; flowers sessile.