Description :

• Annual or usually perennial herbs with prostrate annual branches from a short, rosette-bearing perennial stem; sometimes suckering from extensive root system
• Leaves alternate but often apparently opposite on young branches; ± spatulate-lanceolate, up to ± 100 × 20 mm on branches, up to ± 200 × 30 mm in rosette, 2-3 mm thick, soft, smooth, slightly fleshy, margins undulate when young
• Flowers solitary, with ebracteate pedicel up to 60 mm long, up to ± 45 mm in diameter; opening at noon
• Sepals 5, unequal
• Petals in several series, margins papillate, snow-white
• Stamens and staminodes present
• Nectary a crenulate ring
• Ovary shortly conical; placentas parietal; stigmas (4)5(-7), subulate, ± as long as stamens
• Fruit a (4)5-7-locular capsule, large, obconic; valves without expanding keels or marginal wings, with upper distal seed chambers; valves open on drying (xerochastically) and remain open
• Seeds somewhat kidney-shaped, tuberculate; dispersal as a tumble fruit and by scattering

• Flowering during spring and summer

• Distinguishing characters :
  • Annuals or perennials with flat, alternate leaves which have undulated margins when young and may appear opposite
  • Flowers white
  • Capsule valves open upon drying and remain open

Nomenclature:

• Skiatophytum L.Bolus
  • Bolus: 433 (1927)
  • Leistner: 89 (1958)
  • Herre: 286 (1971)
  • Ihlenfeldt & Gerbaulet: 457 (1990)
  • Smith et al.: 78 (1998)
• Gymnopoma N.E.Br.
  • Brown: 194 (1928)

Distribution & Notes:

• Southern Africa : Species 1: Skiatophytum tripolium (L.) L.Bolus, only in the SW Western Cape, it has become rare near the Cape Peninsula due to urban expansion