Description :

• Dwarf, compact to caespitose, sometimes unbranched perennials, with 1-4 pairs of leaves on each branchlet
• Leaves opposite, equal, connate at base, broad, thick and firmly fleshy, flat above, rounded on back, grey-green or brownish, usually dotted, covered with a thick, irregular wax layer
• Flowers 1-3 on a plant, terminal between leaves, sessile or shortly pedicellate, bracteate, up to ± 80 mm in diameter; opening mid-afternoon until after dusk
• Sepals (4)5 or 6(-8), sometimes united into a short tube above ovary
• Petals free, yellow to orange, rarely white or pinkish
• Stamens epapillate, rising from a short pulvinate tube above annular, dark green holonectary
• Ovary ± flat on top with conical centre; placentas parietal; stigmas 10-12, filiform, diverging
• Fruit a 10-12-locular capsule, a derived version of Leipoldtia type with broad, apically tapering valve wings; very firm covering membranes; large white to brown closing bodies of endocarpal or placental origin
• Seeds compressed-ovoid, minutely tuberculate, dark brown
• x = 9

• Flowering in winter ( P. nelii Schwantes) or autumn

• Distinguishing characters :
  • Compact perennials
  • Lleaves keeled, resembling stones, distinctly pellucid-dotted, waxy

Nomenclature:

• Pleiospilos N.E.Br.
  • Brown: 433 (1925)
  • Herre: 252 (1971)
  • Hartmann & Liede: 433 (1986)
  • Smith et al.: 124 (1998)
• Punctillaria N.E.Br.
  • Brown: 212 (1926)

Distribution & Notes:

• Southern Africa : Species 4, main distribution in the Little Karoo, straddling the border between the Western and Eastern Cape, also extends further north into the arid south-central parts of the Great Karoo in the Northern Cape