Anacampseros

Dwarf, sparingly branched perennial herbs or undershrubs, often with tuberous rootstock; roots thick, fleshy, soft; stems short, thick, fleshy, soft. Leaves alternate, simple, entire, often closely packed, succulent, green leaves exposed, glabrous or papillate; if more than 2, then in a rosette; stipules, when present, modified into bristly hairs. Inflorescences terminal, erect on an elongated, 2-more-flowered scape, with few slender branches and scattered, bract-like, reduced leaves, or undeveloped. Flowers bisexual, sessile, opening for a few hours in bright sunlight. Sepals 2, soon deciduous. Petals 5, hypogynous, fugaceous, white, pink or red. Stamens many, adhering to base of petals; filaments usually white; anthers yellow. Ovary superior, 1-locular, sessile; ovules many on a free-central placenta; style 3-fid. Fruit a capsule, 3-valved or falsely 6-valved by subdivision; epicarp separating from endocarp and deciduous with bristle between each valve. Seeds with a large empty-celled outer layer, angled or compressed, sometimes 3-winged; embryo slightly curved but not surrounding the small perisperm. x= 9 ( polyploidy).