WINTERI Gideon F.Sm. et al., 2016
Distribution : Limpopo province, South Africa, 1370 - 1750 m, growing on quartzite in grassland vegetation, usually in full sun.
Description :
Perennial, many-leaved, 1 - 3 rosettes, sparsely to profusely branched from near the base and higher up, smooth, waxy, robust succulent, 0.5 (-0.9) m tall in bloom.
Stems erect to leaning and curved upwards, smooth, waxy especially at internodes, light green.
Leaves opposite, erect to mostly spreading to variously floppy, succulent, sessile, flattened above and below, glabrous, waxy, light green to bluish-green, petiole absent, blade 140 - 160 x 80 - 140 mm, obovate to somewhat oblong, not folded lengthwise, occasionally light red-infused, axils often carrying small leafy shoots and short branches that produce flowers in season, base narrow, sometimes distinctly auriculate, apex rounded-obtuse or truncate, usually indented at the tip, margins smooth, slightly lighter green than blade, sometimes infused with red.
Inflorescence a slender, erect, densely flowered, cylindrical thyrse consisting of several dichasia terminating in monochasia, 0.5 (-0.9) m tall, pedicels 9 - 10 mm long.
Flowers 13 - 15 mm long, erect to slanted horizontally, pale yellowish-green to greenish-white (tube) and yellow (lobes), all parts excepting tepal lobes above covered with a substantial white waxy bloom, highly scented, resinous to the touch; calyx mid-green, contrasting against lighter green corolla tube, sepals 3 - 4 mm long, elongated- triangular, acute, corolla light greenish-yellow, tube 11 - 12 mm long, more or less quadrangular, ellipsoid (cigar-shaped, enlarged in the middle), distinctly 4-angled, petals 6 - 8 x3.5 - 4 mm, triangular, margins slightly to distinctly inrolled, truncated, bright yellow, stamens 8, inserted jus below or in the middle of the corolla tube, 1 - 2 mm exserted, anthers yellow.
Flowering time : May - September.
Note :
K. winteri is closely allied to K. luciae and K. thyrsiflora. It may be separated from K. luciae by its golden yellow petals and ellipsoid corolla and from K. thyrsiflora by a less cylindrical and more 4-angled tube and oblong rather than square petals. The leaves of K. winteri are much less red-infused than those of K. thyrsiflora and particularly less so than K. luciae.
Photos Gideon F. Smith