MINUS

Hooker’s Icones Plantarium t. 3401 (1940). Translation of the original description is in Quart. Bull. Alp. Gard. Soc. Vol. 10 page 234 (1942). A distinct little species collected in 1934 by E.K. Balls on the Haldizan Dag, Anatolia, northern Turkey. It is a very attractive plant but unfortunately rather rare under cultivation as it is slow to increase its offsets and has the tendency to be over floriferous. In habit it forms a tight hump of tiny globular rosettes of 1 to 2,5 cm in diameter, they are well characterized by their dull olive-green colour, often becoming bronzed on the outermost leaves when fully exposed to hot sun. The central leaves are closed and outer leaves vary from closed to open; rosette leaves are oblanceolate-elliptical with an acute apex and also having a very short pubescence on face and back of leaves with marginal cilia a little longer than pubescence.

A characteristic to distinguish this species which was omitted in the original description by Turrill, is that the base of the rosette leaves is coloured purple. The offsets are produced on very short stolons. Flower-stems are slender and clad with elliptical, fleshy leaves; inflorescence compact, with few comparatively large flowers; buds ovoid-globular.

Petals pale yellow-green, anthers yellow. At some seasons of the year S. minus can resemble S. pumilum in general appearance, but the yellow flowers of S. minus always make distinction easy.

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