Source:
SSA
Synonym(s):
Punctillaria N.E.Br.: 212 (1926c).
Description:
Dwarf, compact to caespitose, sometimes unbranched perennials, with 1-4 pairs of leaves on each branchlet. Leaves opposite, equal, connate at base, broad, thick and firmly fleshy, flat above, rounded on back, grey-green or brownish, usually dotted, covered with a thick, irregular wax layer. Flowers 1-3 on a plant, terminal between leaves, sessile or shortly pedicellate, bracteate, up to +/- 80 mm in diameter; opening mid-afternoon until after dusk. Sepals (4)5 or 6(-8), sometimes united into a short tube above ovary. Petals free, yellow to orange, rarely white or pinkish. Stamens epapillate, rising from a short pulvinate tube above annular, dark green holonectary. Ovary +/- flat on top with conical centre; placentas parietal; stigmas 10-12, filiform, diverging. Fruit a 10-12-locular capsule, a derived version of Leipoldtia type with broad, apically tapering valve wings; very firm covering membranes; large white to brown closing bodies of endocarpal or placental origin. Seeds compressed-ovoid, minutely tuberculate, dark brown. x = 9. F lowering in winter ( P. nelii Schwantes) or autumn. D istinguishing characters: compact perennials; leaves keeled, resembling stones, distinctly pellucid-dotted, waxy.
Distribution:
Species 4, main distribution in the Little Karoo, straddling the border between the Western and Eastern Cape, also extends further north into the arid south-central parts of the Great Karoo in the Northern Cape.
Classification:
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