Adromischus caryophyllaceus looking up

The soft-textured, succulent leaves of Adromischus caryophyllaceus are sometimes as glaucous (blue-green) as seen here, lacking the common red markings. The leaf-shapes in picture vary from obovate to rounded, some with flat upper margins, others with pointy tips.

The plant branches, although those in picture are unbranched and erect. The leaves are strongly ascending in their few-leaved stem-tip rosettes. Old leaves have been discarded, the stems bare and gnarled where leaves have been lost. This may be a function of comparative hardship, these plants growing on the low rainfall Minwater farm in the Little Karoo.

Much seed must have been dispersed (and half-heartedly), to cause such a family gathering of young plants all in the same spot. It is unlikely in this species that the stems are connected, growing from underground material of one parent plant (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2010; Bean and Johns, 2005).