WATERBERGENSIS   Van Jaarsveld, 2017

Section Kalanchoe

Distribution : SA : Western Waterberg margin, just east of Thabazimbi and south of the Kransberg and Marakele National Park (Limpopo Province); growing on gravelly slopes and rocky terrain in savanna.

Description :

Erect, sparingly branched, evergreen, glabrous succulent herb to 50 cm tall.

Roots fibrous.

Branches terete, 4 mm in diameter, grey-green.

Leaves decussate but initially crowded in a basal sub-imbricate rosette 45 - 50 x 26 - 28 mm ascending to become erect and arranged in a vertical plane which appears to be distichous; leaf blade dorsiventrally compressed, broadly ovate to obovate; base cuneate, auriculate; surface pale greyish to purplish green due to a powdery bloom and beset with minute purplish dots; margin yellowish, entire; petiole indistinct, apex acute to subacute, mucronate.

Inflorescence an ascending sparse rounded thyrse to 45 cm high bearing several dichasia; peduncle 2 – 4, several leaf-like bracts becoming smaller and narrower upwards.

Calyx lobes linear triangular 4 - 7 x 1 mm.

Corolla orange-red, urceolate, tube bulging at the base for 7 - 8 mm then ampulliform, 6 - 7 mm long on ascending pedicels 3 - 10 mm long; lobes lanceolate, becoming horizontally spreading, 5 - 6 x 2.5 mm long, apex acute; anthers 8 in two whorls, 0.3 - 0.4 mm fused to corolla tube just above the middle; carpels 4.7 x 2 mm, tapering into erect styles and terminal stigmas; squamae linear, translucent, 3 mm long.

Flowering time : Autumn to early winter.

Kalanchoe waterbergensis differs from K. rotundifolia by its obovate, greyish green leaves which are auriculated at the base, its leaf blade is twisted sideways and the sepals are longer.

First published in Bradleya 35 / 2017, p. 166-170.