PUBESCENS ssp. PUBESCENS

Synonyms :

Sphaeritis biconvexa  Ecklon & Zeyher (1837) / Crassula biconvexa  (Ecklon & Zeyher) Harvey (1862)

Crassula fergusoniae  Schönland (1929)

Crassula fergusoniae fa major  Schönland (1929)

Crassula radicans var. phillipsii  Schönland (1929)

Crassula radicans var. fastigiata  Schönland (1929)

Crassula dewinteri  H.-C.Friedrich (1960)

Crassula higginsiana  hort. ex Bence (1975)

Distribution : SA. Found from near Worcester, mainly in the Little Karoo but also in the adjoining mountains, to Willowmore, with the Gouritz River valley as its eastern limit ; growing on rocky slopes or often in rock crevices, usually on a south-facing aspect or in sheltered somewhat shaded localities.

Description (by Tölken, 1985) :

Plants with erect or spreading branches, rarely with a basal rosette, not rooting at nodes, internodes 0 - 10 (-20) mm long and often visible between leaves.

Leaves oblanceolate, oblong-elliptic or linear-oblanceolate,  (6-) 15 - 25 x (2-) 4 - 12 (-15) mm, pubescent to puberulous, rarely tomentose.

Inflorescence a rounded to almost flat-topped thyrse (i.e. part-inflorescences are produced by 1, 2 (3) nodes of central axis), peduncle with (1) 2 or 3 (4) pairs of bracts without flowers in their axils.

Flowers : Cayx : Sepals oblong-triangular, 1 - 1.5 mm long, obtuse to bluntly acute, puberulous, fleshy,  green, corolla tubular  to almost cylindrical, fused basally for  0.3 - 0.5 mm, cream to pale yellow,  petals oblanceolate-panduriform,  2 - 3 mm long,  with dorsal appendage elongate-elliptic, 0.8 - 1 mm long and about twice as long as broad.

Flowering time September - October (November).

Cytology : 2n = 14, 28

See also : The misunderstood Crassula pubescens Thunb. and its typification by Roy Mottram