Adromischus liebenbergii

This small succulent consisting of ground-level, branched rosettes is thought to be Adromischus liebenbergii, a dwarf leaf succulent that reaches about 20 cm in height when flowering.     

The simple leaves are short-stalked, succulent, and disc-like. The leaf-shape is elliptic with rounded tips more common than obtusely pointed ones. A whitish ridge is evident along the leaf margins. Even on the plant in picture the leaf colour variations are many, ranging from greyish blue to orange-yellow with some pink spottiness near the upper margins.

Long flower stalks protrude high above the basal leaves. The inflorescence is a raceme of spaced, narrowly tubular flowers dangling to one side of the stalks. Flowering happens from late summer to after midautumn.

The species distribution is in the Western Cape near Laingsburg, at the southern end of the Tankwa Karoo.

The habitat is karoid scrub in arid conditions on rocky slopes. The habitat population is deemed of least concern early in the twenty first century (iNaturalist; iSpot; www.myweb.tiscali.co.uk; http://redlist.sanbi.org).