Description :

• Shrubs up to 600 mm high or compactly tufted, dwarf shrubs ± 150 mm high, sometimes with stem-crown drawn below ground
• Leaves decussate, elongate to short, fleshy, 3-angled to rounded in cross section, with a rounded keel and often a pinkish base, dull green to bluish grey-green; epidermis with prominent cells with secondary anticlinal walls, stomatal apparatus and normal cells in a sunken position, surface producing a viscous mucilage to which sand grains adhere and cover leaves
• Flowers solitary, terminal, pedicellate, up to ± 25 mm in diameter, bibracteate; opening at midday, closing by dusk; scented
• Sepals 4, subequal, sticky
• Petals linear, obtuse, white to light violet
• Stamens and staminodes present
• Nectary a crenulate ring
• Ovary : placentas parietal; stigmas 5 or 6(7), filiform
• Fruit a 5- or 6(7)-locular capsule, of Delosperma type; flattish; expanding keels parallel, ending in rather long, rounded, light yellow, crenulate wings, lacerate at apex; covering membranes vestigial; closing bodies 0
• Seeds pear-shaped, minutely tuberculate, light brown with orange tint

• Flowering in winter

• Distinguishing characters :
  • Tufted or shrubby perennials
  • Leaves with sticky epidermis to which sand adheres
  • Fruit with rudimentary covering membranes, without closing bodies

Nomenclature:

• Psammophora Dinter & Schwantes
  • Schwantes: 188 (1926)
  • Friedrich: 94 (1970)
  • Herre: 258 (1971)
  • Hartmann: 29 (1996)
  • Smith et al.: 224 (1998)

Distribution & Notes:

• Southern Africa : Species 4, in full sun on rocky slopes and plains from Lüderitz, Namibia, to the Richtersveld, Northern Cape