Crassula perforata stem growth incident

This Crassula perforata stem was seen in the Kammanassie during April. One of the rare, higher up stem branchings occurring on this Crassula species is present in picture. The competition for juices allowed only one stem to continue though, the other dying after the first few leaf-pairs. The plant grows here in slaty clay soil. It is also found in renosterveld.

The decussate leaf-pairs are about evenly spaced up the stem, so well fused at the back that the leaf margins display only a small colour and shape discontinuation at their meeting points. Marginal colouring is reddish on the younger leaves, orange-brown on the older ones. In shade, the plants leaves may be pale grey-green without the colourful embellishment; in full sun the margins may become dark red-purple. 

The margins in picture are unicoloured, as are the pale, whitish grey leaf centres displaying only a hint of green. The transition regions between these two coloured zones is dotted orange-brown on the pale background, particularly towards the opposing leaf-tips that taper, as well as attenuate slightly.

The plant in picture is C. perforata subsp. perforata, the more widely distributed and commoner subspecies. The other one, subsp. kougaensis bearing its leaves closer together with internodes short, grows on the Kouga and Outeniqua Mountains on rocky ledges of fynbos and Albany thicket (Curtis-Scott, et al, 2020; Smith and Crouch, 2017; Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; http://redlist.sanbi.org).