Description:

• Compact, dwarf, highly succulent perennials forming clumps with age; roots thickened
• Leaves alternate, 2 or 3 per branch, finger-like, cylindrical with long sheaths completely enveloping internodes, withering completely into a membranous covering protecting young buds
• Flowers terminal, solitary, sessile, 10-20 mm in diameter, remaining continuously open for ± 3 weeks
• Sepals 5, equal, forming a short tube above ovary
• Petals white, stiff, numerous, in several series, merging into staminodes
• Stamens numerous, linear, arising from rim of ovary and united into short tube; pollen punctate-foveolate, microspinulose
• Ovary half-superior; placentas axile
• Nectary of 5 separate grooves
• Fruit a capsule, 5-locular, of Mesembryanthemum type; expanding keels parallel, diverging slightly distally; valves with membranous marginal wings or flaps
• Seeds smooth, brown
• x = 9

• Flowering from spring to early summer

• Distinguishing characters:
  • Compact, highly succulent perennials
  • Leaves finger-like, cylindrical
  • Flowers solitary, terminal, remaining open for ± 3 weeks

Nomenclature:

• Dactylopsis N.E.Br.
  • Brown: 413 (1925)
  • Herre: 124 (1971)
  • Hartmann: 47 (1993)
  • Gerbaulet: 145 (1997)
• Phyllobolus N.E.Br. in part
  • Smith et al.: 42 (1998)

Distribution & Notes:

• Southern Africa: Species 2, Vanrhynsdorp and Vredendal districts, Western Cape