TANQUANA   Van Jaarsv., 2019

Distribution : SA (Western Cape, Tanqua Karoo)

Description :

Ascending much-branched evergreen succulent shrublets 20 - 60 cm tall (without inflorescence).

Roots fibrous.

Branches 3 - 6 mm in diameter, grey-green, the lower branches to 10 mm in diameter with smooth brownish bark, becoming more woody with age ; nodes 5 - 10 mm apart.

Leaves crowded at the end of the branches, decussate, ascending-spreading, dorsiventrally compressed, 30 - 65 x 12 - 25 mm, oblong-obovate, surface dull pale to yellowish green and beset with glandular translucent hairs 0.5 mm long, margin at apical portion reddish, petiole indistinct, base cuneate, apex subacute to obtuse, mucronate.

Inflorescence an ascending thyrse 15 - 38 cm long with 1 - 3 dichasia, peduncle with a single pair of bracts, glandular hairy and purplish mottled, pedicels 12 - 25 mm long.

Flowers pendent, sepals triangular, 5 mm long, 4 - 5 mm wide, sparingly ciliate, adnate to tube, green, covered in glandular hairs, corolla 15 - 17 x 7 - 8 mm, dull orange, most of the outer parts covered in glandular hairs, petals lanceolate, acuminate, 17 x 3 mm, tips recoiled, inside glabrous except for a tuft of hairs where the filaments are fused to the tube, tube not bulging, anthers yellow, exposed for up to 5 mm.

Flowering time : August - October.

First published in Haseltonia 26: 2-6. 2019