Juttadinteria

Dwarf, tufted perennials, with short internodes, or erect, ascending, rarely procumbent dwarf shrubs. Leaves mostly short and fleshy, decussate, connate at base, ovoid, subcylindric, broadly boat-shaped or triangular, sometimes with reddish or brownish teeth on margins and keel, pale grey-green or blue-green; epidermis with rounded papillae of unequal size, smaller ones surrounding stomata, larger epidermal cells with anticlinal secondary walls, grey from a flaky wax layer. Flowers solitary, terminal, shortly pedicellate, ebracteate, +/- 50 mm in diameter; often scented; opening in early afternoon, closing at night. Sepals 4, 2 outer ones often toothed, lanceolate, 2 shorter ones with membranous margins. Petals 1 -3-seriate, free or somewhat connate at base, linear, reflexed, mostly white, light to dark violet-red, glistening on both sides. Stamens hairy at base, collected in a cone; staminodes 0. Nectary a crenulate ring. Ovary +/- flat or slightly conical; placentas parietal; stigmas 8( -11), subulate, sometimes on short style. Fruit a 8(-11)-locular capsule, near Delosperma type; with central column and thick septa between locules; valve wings long, narrow; expanding keels parallel, diverging slightly near tips; covering membranes rarely well developed, mostly reduced to a limb; closing bodies 0. Seeds +/- spherical or pear-shaped, wrinkled or warty. F lowering in winter. D istinguishing characters: branches erect to spreading; leaves tuberculate; flowers with 4 sepals, petals white, stigmas 8, opening in the morning; pedicels ebracteate; fruit with rudimentary covering membranes.