Cheiridopsis

Cheiridopsis is a species of succulent-leaf perennials in the Aizoaceae or mesemb family. Some of the compact, tufted, dwarf or shrubby plants have two different leaf-shapes and a few bear a compact storage root.

The generic name, Cheiridopsis is derived from the Greek words, cheiris, meaning sheath and opsis meaning resembling, referring to the papery leaf sheaths formed by old leaf skins around the new leaves of about a third of the species.

The leaves are opposite in similar or identical pairs joined at the base. There are often two consecutive pairs per short branch, the pairs differing from each other in shape in certain species. Old, withered leaves remain in some instances as sheaths covering new leaf-pairs. The free parts of the leaves often have their upper surfaces pressed together when young.

The keeled leaves, triangular in cross-section, vary in length, sometimes with a small tooth or two on the keel. Green, grey-green or blue-green, the leaf surfaces may be mottled or papillate and waxy.

The stem-tip flowers grow solitary, subtended by variably sized bracts. The flowers are mostly stalked, the stalks sometimes curved. The mostly fragrant flowers close at night, usually open for most of the afternoon. There are four or five sepals and numerous petals in several rows around the flower centre. The flower colour is usually shades of yellow, in few species red or purple.

The nectary forms a notched or scalloped ring in the flower base. The ovary becomes depressed during fruiting. The placentas inside the ovary are positioned at the base or on the outside walls. There are ten to twenty stigmas in the flower centre.

Flowering happens from autumn to early spring.

The fruit is a capsule comprising ten to twenty locules. The covering membranes are about straight with wings or differently formed appendages and large closing bodies. The valves spread or are reflexed, the expanding keels are pointed, awn-like. The whitish to brown seeds are pear-shaped and three-angled, the surfaces rough in some cases.

There are 33 Cheiridopsis species, all occurring in the west of southern Africa from Namibia to the north of the Western Cape, the genus centred in the Richtersveld.

The plant in picture is Cheiridopsis robusta (Leistner, (Ed.), 2000; Smith, et al, 1998).