Carpobrotus

Robust trailing perennials, forming large mats; stems maroon to yellow, sometimes narrowly winged, with +/- upright flowering branches. Leaves opposite, slightly united at base, sharply 3-angled, up to 150 mm long, green or grey-green, often tinged with a reddish hue, margins and keel cartilaginous and often serrate. Flowers large, up to 150 mm diameter, terminal, pedicellate, borne on bracteate stalks; base of flower two-ridged tapering into flower stalk; opening in morning and closing at night. Sepals 5, equal or unequal. Petals free, white, yellow or various shades of purple or pink. Stamens many. Nectary a crenulate ring. Ovary: placentas parietal; stigmas 4-20, radiating, plumose. Fruit fleshy-succulent, indehiscent, 4-20-locular, often edible. Seeds large, obovoid, slightly compressed, on long funicles, embedded in a sticky mucilage. x = 9. F lowering from early spring to summer. D istinguishing characters: robust perennials, trailing; leaves triquetrous, smooth, long; flowers large, up to 150 mm in diameter; fruit fleshy, seeds embedded in mucilage.