Dwarf, succulent perennials forming small, dense clumps or mats, up to 200 mm high; usually with a short woody rootstock, occasionally with fleshy roots
Leaves often very unequal and variable in shape, connate to different degrees, forming ± spherical bodies or trigonous with an apical chin to digitiform; light to dark green, bluish green, reddish, metallic grey, whitish green or grey-white; epidermis minutely hairy or with long dense hairs, more rarely smooth; stomata, and in most cases, subsidiary cells, sunken
Flowers solitary, terminal, pedicellate, ebracteate, 20(80 mm in diameter; opening in afternoon and closing in evening
Sepals 6(9, unequal
Petals 1(3-seriate, linear, free, white, pink, or different shades of purple
Stamens: staminodes present or 0, often bearded at base
Nectary of 6(?-9) large, separate, crenulate glands
Ovary often somewhat conical; placentas parietal; stigmas 6(9, usually stout and subulate, plumose
Fruit a 6(9-locular capsule, of Drosanthemum type; convex or conical with prominent sutures; valves deltoid, spreading, reflexed when expanded; expanding keels parallel or diverging, rarely toothed, terminating in broad wings; covering membranes present; closing bodies 0
Seeds many in each locule, acutely ovoid, smooth
x = 9 (polyploidy)
Flowering from late winter to early summer
Distinguishing characters:
Dwarf perennials
Leaves subequal to unequal united into bodies with an oblique fissure separating the leaves of a pair, often velvety
Flowers purple or white
Nomenclature:
Gibbaeum Haw.
Haworth: 104 (1821)
Brown: 273 (1921)
Brown: 129, 151 (1922)
Nel: (1953)
Herre: 162 (1971)
Frandsen: 14 (1998)
Smith et al.: 104 (1998)
Van Jaarsveld & Hammer: 14 (1998)
Imitaria N.E.Br.
Brown: 348 (1927c)
Herre: 178 (1971)
Hartmann: 1 (1993)
Rimaria N.E.Br.
Brown: 413 (1925)
Mentocalyx N.E.Br.
Brown: 251 (1927a)
Argeta N.E.Br.
Brown: 113 (1927b)
Distribution & Notes:
Southern Africa: Species 16, mostly found growing in the Little Karoo, Western Cape and adjacent areas, it only extends peripherally into the Northern Cape
References:
BROWN, N.E. 1921. Mesembryanthemum and some new genera separated from it. Gardeners' Chronicle: 70
BROWN, N.E. 1922. Mesembryanthemum and some new genera separated from it. Gardeners' Chronicle: 71
BROWN, N.E. 1925. Mesembryanthemum and some new genera separated from it. Gardeners' Chronicle 78
BROWN, N.E. 1927a. Mesembryanthemum and some new genera separated from it. Gardeners' Chronicle 81
BROWN, N.E. 1927b. Mesembryanthemum and some new genera separated from it. Gardeners' Chronicle 82
BROWN, N.E. 1927c. Two new Mesembryanthemaceae. Journal of Botany, British and Foreign 65
FRANDSEN, R. 1998. The genus Gibbaeum and its habitat at the Little Karoo. Aloe 35
HARTMANN, H.E.K. & GÖLLING, H. 1993. A monograph of the genus Glottiphyllum (Mesembryanthema, Aizoaceae). Bradleya 11
HAWORTH, A.H. 1821. Revisiones plantarum succulentarum. R. & A. Taylor, London
HERRE, H. 1971. The genera of the Mesembryanthemaceae: 162, 178. Tafelberg, Cape Town
NEL, C.G. 1953. In P.G. Jordaan & E.W. Shurly (eds.), The Gibbaeum handbook. A genus of highly succulent plants, native to South Africa. Blanford Press, London
SMITH, G.F., CHESSELET, P., VAN JAARSVELD, E.J., HARTMANN, H., HAMMER, S., VAN WYK, B-.E., BURGOYNE, P., KLAK, C. & KURZWEIL, H. 1998. Mesembs of the world. Briza, Pretoria
VAN JAARSVELD, E.J. & HAMMER, S.A. 1996. Gibbaeum johnstonii, a new species from the Little Karoo. Bradleya 14
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