Description :

• Dwarf, mat-forming, glabrous, succulent perennials
• Stems cylindrical, sometimes clavate, roundly 4- or 5-angled, angles marked by triangular scars of rudimentary leaves
• Inflorescence cymose-thyrsoid cyme, 1-3 per stem, on upper parts; floral bracts lanceolate, ± 1 mm long
• Flowers 1-5, produced on rudimentary peduncles, usually opening in succession
• Sepals ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, with scales within base
• Corolla rotate and deeply lobed to campanulate, tubular or with nearly flat base, 5-lobed in apical part, usually hairy on inner surface; lobes ovate or lanceolate, acuminate, often with revolute margins
• Corona 1-seriate, yellow, arising from staminal column, of 5 lobes incumbent on anthers, rarely with erect tips, sometimes toothed, dorsally produced or expanded into a truncate, minutely tuberculate or denticulate crest
• Staminal column arising from base of corolla
• Anthers 2-locular, ± horizontal on top of style head, without appendages
• Pollinia ellipsoid, with short caudicles
• Style head a 5-lobed disc
• Follicles paired, green, sometimes spotted red, glabrous
• Seeds flat, ovate, winged, narrowly brown, slightly sculptured; tuft of hairs 10-16 mm long
• x = 11 (polyploidy)

Nomenclature:

• Piaranthus R.Br.
  • Brown: 12 (1810)
  • Brown: 1015 (1909)
  • White & Sloane: 783 (1937a)
  • Meve: 57 (1994)
  • Bruyns: 395 (1999)
• Huerniopsis N.E.Br.
  • Brown: 171 (1878)
  • Brown: 499 (1903)
  • Brown: 922 (1909)
  • White & Sloane: 965 (1937b)
  • Huber: 40 (1967)

Distribution & Notes:

• Global : Species 6
• Southern Africa : Species 6, Namibia, Botswana, Northern Province, North-West, Mpumalanga, Free State, Northern, Western and Eastern Cape