Description :

• Dwarf, leafless, succulent perennials, glabrous in all parts except sometimes inside of flower
• Stem acutely to obtusely 4-angled, usually procumbent, often arching and rerooting as it elongates, tuberculate and acutely toothed along angles when young, often with a distinct bud in axil of each tubercle
• Inflorescences 1-4 per stem, arising near base, each with 1-4 flowers developing in gradual succession on a short peduncle
• Sepals acute to ovate-acute
• Corolla : tube ± spherical, cupular or campanulate; lobes ovate-lanceolate to lanceolate, sometimes connate at apex; interior of corolla sometimes with erect rigid hairs, white or cream with deep red patches; outside smooth to papillate, pink to white
• Corona 2-seriate; outer corona lobes truncated, entire, joining to dorsal projection of inner lobes near base; inner lobes with large, thick, subclavate dorsal projection pointing horizontally outwards and not rising much above stigmatic surface, with broad base adnate to base of anther, forming a small channel in which anther wings are situated, with small narrow limb adnate to back of anther, usually longer than anther
• Anthers 2-locular, ± horizontal on top of style head, rectangular, without apical appendages
• Pollinia with short caudicles and winged corpuscle
• Follicles erect, terete-fusiform, short, smooth

Nomenclature:

• Ophionella Bruyns
  • Bruyns: 70 (1981)
• Pectinaria Haw.
  • Haworth: 14 (1819) in part

Distribution & Notes:

• Southern Africa : Species 1: Ophionella arcuata (N.E.Br.) Bruyns, with 2 subspecies, growing between Willowmore in the west and Addo in the east (Eastern Cape)