Description:

• Compact, tufted, dwarf perennials with tuberous rootstock
• Leaves in a dense rosette, ovate to spatulate in outline, in section fairly flat to 3-angled to almost semiterete, often conspicuously tuberculate or punctate
• Flowers solitary or occasionally in twos or threes, pedicellate, 18-40 mm in diameter, usually bracteate, opening in afternoon, closing sunset or opening towards evening and closing before dawn
• Sepals 5 or 6, nearly equal, erect or recurved, obtuse, acute or acuminate, with narrow membranous margins
• Petals 2- or 3-seriate, yellow, salmon, flesh-pink or rose, the yellow ones sometimes with a red, central stripe
• Stamens with filaments papillate towards base; staminodes 0
• Nectary glands angular, in a ring
• Ovary flat, convex or subglobosely or conically elevated above; placentas parietal; stigmas 6-14, slender, ± as long as stamens
• Fruit a 6-14-locular capsule of Titanopsis type, nearly flat to conical above, semiglobose, convex, obconic or nearly flat below; expanding keels parallel, diverging at tips; covering membranes complete or relictual; valve wings well developed; closing bodies 0, rudimentary or well developed
• Seeds broadly obovate, minutely tuberculate to nearly smooth, brown

• Flowering from late winter to early spring

• Distinguishing characters:
  • Rosette-forming perennials with rough, spoon-shaped leaves
  • Roots tuberous
  • Flowers with striped petals
  • Seeds ovoid

Nomenclature:

• Aloinopsis Schwantes
  • Schwantes: 177 (1926)
  • Bolus: 372 (1958)
  • Herre: 66 (1971)
  • Smith et al.: 156 (1998)
• Acaulon N.E.Br.
  • Brown: 196 (1928)
• Aistocaulon Poelln. ex H.Jacobsen
  • Jacobsen: 123 (1935)

Distribution & Notes:

• Southern Africa: Species 14, predominantly in the Great and Little Karoo, in the Western and Eastern Cape, extending slightly into the S Northern Cape; a single outlier: Aloinopsis orpenii (N.E.Br.) L.Bolus, northeastern corner of the Northern Cape