Description:

• Compact, dwarf perennials, rarely tufted, sometimes single-bodied, rarely subterranean, branching from base, each stem or branch with 2 or, when new leaf pairs are forming, 4-6 leaves
• Leaves opposite, finger-shaped, hood-shaped, semi-ovoid or semiglobose, united at base, erect or spreading, with upper surface flat or slightly convex, lower surface convex, silvery to grey-green
• Flowers solitary, terminal, with a distinct hypanthium into which stamens bend; opening at midday and closing in afternoon
• Sepals 6-8, produced above ovary into a short tube
• Petals many, arising from top of calyx tube, free, in shades of yellow, purple, or red, rarely white
• Stamens many; staminodes 0 or few
• Ovary: placentas parietal or basal; stigmas united into a small, entire or slightly crenate and disc-like cushion
• Nectary annular
• Fruit a 12-25-locular capsule, of Leipoldtia type, broad and shallow; covering membranes rather rigid; closing bodies large, nearly closing outer opening of locules; valve wings rather narrow; expanding keels stout, awned
• Seeds subglobose, small, smooth, brown
• x = 9

• Flowering autumn and early winter

• Distinguishing characters:
  • Rounded, highly succulent perennials, single-bodied or tufted
  • Leaves smooth, silver to grey-green
  • Flowers solitary, with distinct hypanthium and stigmas fused into a disc

Nomenclature:

• Argyroderma N.E.Br.
  • Brown: 92, 105 (1922a)
  • Herre: 82 (1971)
  • Hartmann: 121 (1977)
  • Smith et al.: 82 (1998)
• Roodia N.E.Br.
  • Brown: t. 78 (1922b)

Distribution & Notes:

• Southern Africa: Species 11, northwestern part of the Western Cape. It has a restricted distribution in southern Namaqualand in an area known as the Knersvlakte