Source:
SSA
Description:
Shrubs, prostrate or often hanging, with thick woody stems forming large dense mats; branches covered with old, dry leaves; internodes 2 or 3 mm long. Leaves 4 -6 on a branch, opposite, shaped like a grape, very fleshy, 12 -15 mm in diameter, smooth, grey, often purplish suffused; epidermis cells flat, outer walls with a rather thick crystal layer. Flowers terminal, solitary, shortly pedunculate, up to +/- 25 mm in diameter; all elements of androecium on a raised rim above nectary; opening at noon, closing by dusk. Sepals 5, unequal, 3 inner with membranous margins. Petals 2-seriate, free, acute, magenta with white at base. Stamens many, filaments pubescent at base; staminodes 0. Nectary a dark green, crenulate ring. Ovary flat or somewhat concave on top; placentas parietal; stigmas 5, subulate, with rudimentary stylodia. Fruit a 5(6)-locular capsule, of Delosperma type; flat, basin-shaped, up to 12 mm in diameter with septa prominent, erect, arched towards central column; expanding keel contiguous towards base, diverging and excurrent into very long, narrow, pennant-like white wings; covering membranes 0; closing bodies 0. Seeds oblong-ovate, +/- 1 mm long, shiny, brown. F lowering in autumn and winter. D istinguishing characters: perennials with thick woody stems and leaves resembling grapes; highly localised in its distribution.
Distribution:
Species 1: Jensenobotrya lossowiana A.G.J.Herre, endemic to Namibia, and occurs at Dolphin Head in Spencer Bay, in the coastal desert between Luderitz and Walvis Bay.
Classification:
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