Vlokia

Dwarf, tufted perennials, sparsely branched, with age forming prostrate stems up to 100 mm long, +/- 4 mm thick; internodes 2-5 mm long, old leaves persisting for 8-10 years, shrunken but retaining their shape; roots wiry, thin, brownish, running laterally to 300 mm. Leaves of the current season opposite, basally connate, +/- equal, +/- 10 mm long, 8 mm broad, 8 mm thick, boat-shaped, keeled, firm, greyish green to brownish green, glabrous, slightly shining when turgid, very smooth, with a thin wax layer, finely and vaguely maculate, margins slightly reddened. Flowers solitary; pedicel up to 6 mm long, 2-2.5 mm thick, pale green with a reddish flush; bracts shaped like leaves but half their size; diurnal, expanding at noon, closing by late afternoon; scentless. Sepals 6, equal, reddish green with thin translucent margins. Petals 22-25 in a single series or with a second partial series, 4-5 mm long, to 1.5 mm broad, often obtuse, not widely spreading, mauve to rose-pink. Stamens sparse, +/- 16, shorter than staminodes, papillate; anthers whitish yellow; staminodes conically collected, up to 80, up to 4 mm long, recurved above, pink or white. Nectary composed of +/- 20 dark green, contiguous tiny glands forming a ring. Ovary with basal-parietal placentas; stigmas (5)6(7), concealed within staminal cone, up to 2 mm long, free, pale green. Fruit a 5-7-locular capsule of +/- Lampranthus type, up to 6 mm in diameter (up to 10 mm when expanded), firm, blackish, flat above, half globose below; expanding keels parallel at base, divergent towards tips; covering membranes present, flat; closing bodies 0; valve wings 0. Seeds +/- 20 per locule, fattish-pyriform, very finely rugulose, dark brown. F lowering late winter to early spring. D istinguishing characters: perennials with persistent trailing stems; old persistent leaves blackish; capsules blackish.