Description:

• Dwarf, stemless, single-bodied or sparsely clustered perennials; seasonally covered by withered, whitish felt-like leaf sheaths; roots fibrous
• Leaves fused into pairs forming a somewhat spherical, soft body, with a small fissure near apex, and fine, velvety hairs covering stomata
• Flowers solitary, rupturing top of body when emerging; pedicel clavate, short, ebracteate; flowers ± 20 mm in diameter; open during day
• Petals in several series, free, linear to filiform, whitish to purple
• Stamens ± epapillate
• Sepals 6, oblong, with membranous tips
• Nectary a crenate ring ± clearly broken into 6 parts corresponding with sepals
• Ovary half-inferior, partly immersed in stout pedicel; placentas parietal; stigmas 6, short, stout, recurving
• Fruit a 6-locular capsule, of Delosperma type; placenta prominent; forming pockets; valves deltoid, expanding horizontally; expanding keels contiguous with broad, marginal valve wings as long as valves; valve wings connate at base, forming pockets; covering membranes or closing devices 0
• Seeds many in each locule, ovoid, slightly compressed, smooth, brown
• x = 9 (1 report)

• Flowering early summer

• Distinguishing characters:
  • Single-bodied perennials
  • Leaf pairs entirely fused, hairy
  • Flowers rupturing tips of bodies when emerging

Nomenclature:

• Muiria N.E.Br.
  • Brown: 116 (1927)
  • Herre: 220 (1971)
  • Smith et al.: 118 (1998)

Distribution & Notes:

• Southern Africa: Species 1: Muiria hortenseae N.E.Br., confined to a small region on the northern side of the Langeberg range in the Barrydale District of the Little Karoo, Western Cape