EGGLII   Van Jaarsv.

Distribution : Mpumalanga, SA; growing in serpentine soils on steep cliffs and rocky terrain in Savanna.

Description :

Erect, sparingly branched evergreen succulent shrublets to 50 cm tall.

Roots fibrous.

Branches 8 - 9 mm in diameter, grey-green, the lower branches to 15 mm in diameter with smooth brownish bark becoming more woody with age; nodes 7 - 15 mm apart.

Leaves crowded at the ends of the branches, decussate or rarely spirally arranged, ascending-spreading, dorsiventrally compressed, 50 - 70 x 20 - 34 mm, cuneiform to cuneiform obovate; surface dull green and sparingly beset with glandular translucent hairs 0.5 mmlong; margin at apical portion reddish, slightly undulating, minutely ciliate; petiole indistinct, base cuneate, apex obtuse, mucronate.

Inflorescence is an ascending thyrse 22 - 28 cm long bearing 1 - 3 dichasia; peduncle with two pairs of bracts.

Calyx lobes triangular, 5 mm long, 4 - 5 mm wide, sparingly ciliate, adnate to tube, green.

Corolla pendent, dull orange, 30 x 8 mm, the tube 24 mm long on pendent pedicels15 - 30 mm long, in bud 45 mm long; lobes lanceolate, 17 x 8 mm long becoming recoiled, their apices emarginate; surface glabrous except for a tuft of hairs where the filaments are fused to the tube. The corolla tube slightly bulges in the middle. Stamens 10, in two whorls, erect, yellowish-green, 35 mm, fused to the tube in lower third. Anthers 1.5 x 1.5 mm, yellow, exposed for up to 5 mm. Squamae transversely oblong 1 x 2 mm, yellowish, truncate at the apex. Carpels 5, tapering to slander styles 32 - 33 mm long.

Flowering time : Autumn to early winter.

Note :

Cotyledon egglii differs from C. orbiculata var. oblonga by its distinctly cuneiform leaves sparingly beset with glancular hairs and corolla bearing horizontally spreading transversely oblong yellowish squamae 2 x 1 mm, truncate at the apex.

First published in Bradleya 35 / 2017, p.  180-185.