Description :

• Low shrublets up to 400 mm high; young stems smooth, succulent, becoming woody with age
• Leaves decussate, lower parts fused, sheathing stem down to node below, free part deltoid-trigonous, tips recurved; glabrous, up to 13 mm long
• Flowers solitary, terminal, subsessile, up to 30 mm in diameter, remaining open after first opening
• Sepals 5, unequal, acuminate
• Petals white or pink, free towards base
• Staminodes present, gathered around stamens, pink or purple, rarely white
• Nectary inconspicuous
• Ovary ± flat on top; placentas parietal; stigmas 7-10, minute
• Fruit a 7-10-locular, woody capsule, of Lampranthus type but valves with very narrow wings; expanding keels parallel at base, with diverging awned tips; covering membranes stout; closing bodies 0
• Seeds brown to black, surface rough

• Flowering spring to summer

• Distinguishing characters :
  • Shrubs with stem-sheathing, partially fused leaf pairs
  • Fruit with 7-10 locules

Nomenclature:

• Smicrostigma N.E.Br.
  • Brown: 72 (1930)
  • Herre: 288 (1971)
  • Smith et al.: 340 (1998)

Distribution & Notes:

• Southern Africa : Species 1, Smicrostigma viride (Haw.) N.E.Br. The distribution of Smicrostigma stretches from Riversdale in the Western Cape to the Eastern Cape border. It is a typical Little Karoo element found in arid areas north of the Langeberg and Outeniqua Mountains