Source:
SSA
Description:
Dwarf shrubs becoming woody with age, up to 250 mm high, to 250 mm in diameter; branches erect to spreading; internodes ochre to darker. Leaves opposite, united at base, decurrent on stem, short, thick, +/- triquetrous, often inflated, margins and keel +/- serrate or with small teeth, surfaces rough to smooth; dark green. Flowers 1( -3), terminal, shortly pedicellate or subsessile, often embraced by bracts. Sepals 4(5), unequal. Petals 2- or 3-seriate, white to purple. Stamens arranged in a cone, filaments sometimes bearded; staminodes present. Nectary a crenulate, dark green ring. Ovary convex above; placentas parietal; stigmas 6 -8, subulate. Fruit a 6 -8-locular capsule, close to Leipoldtia type, brown, markedly convex on top in most cases; expanding keels diverging, lacerate towards tips; valve wings absent or narrow, broadest in middle; closing bodies large, white, flat; covering membranes rising towards centre; distal closing devices 0. Seeds rough-textured. F lowering mainly in winter. D istinguishing characters: fruit firm, brown, 8-locular.
Distribution:
Species 8, in two separate areas in South Africa, one in northern Namaqualand, Northern Cape; the other in the Little Karoo, Western Cape. The species in this genus do not form a natural group since they have been included merely on the number of locules in the fruit (mostly 8).
Classification:
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