Description:

• Shrubs, prostrate or often hanging, with thick woody stems forming large dense mats; branches covered with old, dry leaves; internodes 2 or 3 mm long
• Leaves 4(6 on a branch, opposite, shaped like a grape, very fleshy, 12(15 mm in diameter, smooth, grey, often purplish suffused; epidermis cells flat, outer walls with a rather thick crystal layer
• Flowers terminal, solitary, shortly pedunculate, up to ± 25 mm in diameter; all elements of androecium on a raised rim above nectary; opening at noon, closing by dusk
• Sepals 5, unequal, 3 inner with membranous margins
• Petals 2-seriate, free, acute, magenta with white at base
• Stamens many, filaments pubescent at base; staminodes 0
• Nectary a dark green, crenulate ring
• Ovary flat or somewhat concave on top; placentas parietal; stigmas 5, subulate, with rudimentary stylodia
• Fruit a 5(6)-locular capsule, of Delosperma type; flat, basin-shaped, up to 12 mm in diameter with septa prominent, erect, arched towards central column; expanding keel contiguous towards base, diverging and excurrent into very long, narrow, pennant-like white wings; covering membranes 0; closing bodies 0
• Seeds oblong-ovate, ± 1 mm long, shiny, brown

• Flowering in autumn and winter

• Distinguishing characters:
  • Perennials with thick woody stems
  • Leaves resembling grapes
  • Highly localised in its distribution

Nomenclature:

• Jensenobotrya A.G.J.Herre
  • Herre: 79 (1951)
  • Friedrich: 58 (1970)
  • Herre: 17 (1970)
  • Herre: 182 (1971)
  • Giess: 3 (1974)
  • Smith et al.: 264 (1998)

Distribution & Notes:

• Southern Africa: Species 1: Jensenobotrya lossowiana A.G.J.Herre, endemic to Namibia, and occurs at Dolphin Head in Spencer Bay, in the coastal desert between Lüderitz and Walvis Bay