Description :

• Leafless, succulent perennials, sometimes rhizomatous, forming clumps or mats
• Stems 4-angled, erect or ascending, with flattish sides, minutely papillate; angles with tubercles tapering to small, tooth-like, rudimentary leaf bases
• Inflorescences 1(3) per stem, arising near base of stem, glabrous to minutely pubescent, with 1-6 flowers opening in gradual succession
• Sepals ± lanceolate, acuminate
• Corolla ellipsoidal, ovoid to cylindrical or campanulate with short triangular lobes sometimes joined at tips, exterior glabrous except in S. neronis , interior either covered with prominent papillae becoming smaller towards base of tube where they are tipped with a stiff hair, or without papillae but always with stiff hairs and covered with fine spicules
• Corona 2-seriate; outer lobes either each reduced to a small, truncate (sometimes bifid) tooth at base of inner lobes or modified to form cup containing at least lower half of staminal column, lobes appearing as small indentations or teeth around mouth of cup; inner lobes joined dorsally near their base to outer corona tube or meeting outer lobes laterally near their base, touching anthers only near their base, limb of lobes rising up above stigmatic surface, usually meeting in centre, laterally flattened with rounded tips
• Anthers 2-locular, horizontal on top of style head, rectangular, without appendages
• Pollinia ellipsoidal
• Follicles erect, terete-fusiform, borne on much-elongated pedicel, glabrous, smooth
• x = 11

Nomenclature:

• Stapeliopsis Pillans
  • Pillans: 32 (1928)
  • White & Sloane: 721 (1937)
  • Phillips: t. 445 (1932)
  • Bruyns: 73 (1981)

Distribution & Notes:

• Southern Africa : Species 6, Namibia, North-West, Northern, Western and Eastern Cape