Crassula hybrid

Natural hybrids of crassulas do occur, such as this one in the Northern Cape believed to be grown from Crassula elegans subsp. elegans and C. plegmatoides. Both plants grow in partly overlapping distribution areas in and around the Richtersveld and flowering in autumn (although the former has a longer blooming season).

As can be expected, features of both parent plants will manifest in the hybrid. Short branches of densely clustered identical, chunky leaf-pairs, free to the base and with red margins are grown. Few-flowered, branched clusters of small flowers grow in a panicle on an erect peduncle well above the leaves.

The grey-green calyx ending in five pointed lobes covers more than half the white corolla tube of each flower. Male and female floral parts are concealed inside the corolla. The white corolla colour is surprising (Grenier, 2019; Frandsen, 2017; iNaturalist; http://redlist.sanbi.org).