Orbea

Dwarf, glabrous, succulent perennials forming compact to diffuse clumps, branching from base, often rhizomatous. Stems erect to prostrate, obtusely 4-angled, prominently acutely toothed along angles; teeth conical or compressed-deltoid, spreading, usually widely so, each tipped with a soft, acute to acuminate leaf rudiment, usually subtended by a pair of stipular denticles shortly below apex. Inflorescences 1-3(-5) per stem, developed normally from near base of stem, each with 1-40 flowers usually developing in succession. Flowers often humifuse, +/- 10-100 mm in diameter, not or only faintly odorous. Corolla rotate to campanulate, often thickened below bases of lobes to form a prominent annulus; outside smooth, often streaked with purple; inside rugulose to +/- smooth; lobes spreading to reflexed, +/- flat above, often with vibratile clavate cilia on margins. Corona 2-seriate, glabrous, mostly with 10 lobes in 2 alternating series, on a mostly short stipe, generally accessible to relatively large pollinators; outer corona usually of 5 spreading to erect, +/- subquadrate lobes beneath anther wings, protruding above relatively large nectarial cavity with nectarial orifice at its rear and corresponding outer corona lobe spreading from its base; inner lobes adpressed to backs of anthers, often exceeding them and rising up connivent in centre, dorsiventrally flattened to terete, often with fin-like dorsal appendage. Anthers 2-locular, horizontal on top of style head. Pollinia +/- broadly ovate or subcircular, with a +/- straight inner margin, as long as or slightly longer than broad. Follicles erect, terete-fusiform, glabrous, smooth. x = 11 ( polyploidy).