Description:

• Dwarf, tufted, glabrous perennials, with tuberous roots
• Leaves opposite, united at base and ground-hugging with bases often buried in soil, boat-shaped, ± depressed-trigonous in section, spreading, dull green; surface rough, punctate with whitish dots
• Flowers solitary, pedicelled to subsessile, bracteate, 20(30 mm in diameter; opening after noon, closing at dusk
• Sepals 5
• Petals 2- or 3-seriate, yellow, rarely white, often with a central red stripe
• Stamens: inner filaments bearded near base; staminodes present or 0
• Nectary a crenate ring
• Ovary flattish to conical on top; placentas basal or parietal; stigmas 6(10, slender, papillate
• Fruit a 6(10-locular capsule, resembling Delosperma type, but the rounded, semiglobose base of capsule differs from typical form, sometimes as tumble fruit; expanding keels strictly radial; closing bodies 0; rims of septa very narrow
• Seeds ovoid or somewhat pear-shaped, smooth
• x = 9

• Flowering almost throughout the year, but not in winter in habitat

• Distinguishing characters:
  • Small rosette-forming perennials with tuberous roots
  • Leaves pointed at tips, with almost concave upper surfaces and pale dots
  • Flowers in shades of yellow, often with striped petals

Nomenclature:

• Nananthus N.E.Br.
  • Brown: 433 (1925)
  • Bolus: 382 (1958)
  • Friedrich: 88 (1970)
  • Herre: 226 (1971)
  • Smith et al.: 162 (1998)
• Prepodesma N.E.Br.
  • Brown: 279 (1930)

Distribution & Notes:

• Southern Africa: Species 10, widespread in the climatically severe interior from near Graaff-Reinet in the Great Karoo (Eastern Cape), northward through the Northern Cape and the central Free State to around Potchefstroom in the North-West, extending into the south of Gauteng. To the west the distribution stretches to near Upington and Bushmanland in the Northern Cape
  • The occurrence of an apparently isolated population in Namibia, due east of Windhoek, near the border with Botswana, highlights a lack of collections from the Northern Cape and Botswana