Crassula corallina

Crassula corallina, the coral crassula or in Afrikaans hasieskos (rabbit’s food), is a tiny crassula, a hardy plant resembling coral according to its name.

The plant spreads, forming a dense mat that may assist in retaining moisture longer around its own tuberous underground reservoir. Branching results in a clump of chubby looking rosettes formed by successive leaf pairs, like little faces protected by consecutive sets of earmuffs. As if the terrain was cold and snowy instead of excruciatingly hot in its blooming season.

The species distribution is in the far northwest and the centre of South Africa. Coral may be the last substance one would expect in this white-flowered and white-leaved plant’s desert-like habitat, but the association is clear from looks. Both subspecies of the plant, viz. C. corallina subsp. macrorrhiza and C. corallina subsp. corallina grow in the Richtersveld. This photo was taken in Namaqualand and is probably C. corallina subsp. corallina. The range extends as far east as the Free State, north to Namibia and south to the Karoo, also into the Eastern Cape.

The habitat is arid grassland, dry floodplains and succulent Karoo flats and rocky outcrops. Neither subspecies is considered threatened in habitat early in the twenty first century (Williamson, 2010; Bond and Goldblatt, 1984; http://www.llifle.com; http://redlist.sanbi.org).