Description :

• Dwarf shrubs, up to 400 mm high; branchlets densely leafy, internodes not visible
• Leaves opposite, united up to half their length into bodies 5 mm long and wide; upper surface flat, keeled on back, usually with 1 or 2 short teeth on keels, mucronate, smooth, glossy with greyish, bluish or reddish colour; stomatal apparatus sunken, overarched by a dome of peristomatal papillae
• Flowers solitary, subsessile; pedicel bibracteate in middle
• Sepals 6, unequal
• Petals 2- or 3-seriate, white, or pink to purple
• Stamens with surrounding staminodes collected in a central cone; filaments papillate
• Nectary a crenulate ring
• Ovary convex on top; placentas parietal; stigmas 10-12, subulate
• Fruit a 10-12-locular capsule close to Leipoldtia type but with a variable and sometimes complete recurving of covering membranes, with spur-like processes which nearly close opening; expanding keels parallel, diverging towards acute apex; closing bodies present
• Seeds pear-shaped, somewhat flattened and rough, reddish yellow

• Flowering in winter

• Distinguishing characters :
  • Compact perennials, with grey-green short leaves
  • Flowers white or pink to purple, with staminodes collected in a cone

Nomenclature:

• Schlechteranthus Schwantes
  • Schwantes: 16 (1929)
  • Herre: 278 (1971)
  • Smith et al.: 286 (1998)

Distribution & Notes:

• Southern Africa : Species 2, occurs in the Richtersveld, Northern Cape