Crassula muscosa var. muscosa

Crassula muscosa var. muscosa, the lizard’s tail or in Afrikaans skoenveterbossie (little shoelace bush), is a dwarf shrub with many brittle stems. The branched four-angled stems have neatly aligned arrays of scale-like leaves below the flowering parts in picture. Higher up the flowers grow from leaf axils. The open flowers show pale yellow in the centre, the closed buds are maroon.

C. muscosa occurs from Namibia to the Eastern Cape. The subspecies range is not known. The plant was photograph in the Western Cape near Oudtshoorn in August.

The habitat for the species is very diverse, including fynbos, dune scrub, shrubland and thicket. The species overall is not considered threatened in nature early in the twenty first century. Four varieties of C. muscosa are recognised in the 1997 edition of the List of Southern African Succulent Plants (Smith, et al, 2017; Smith, et al, 1997; iSpot; www.redlist.sanbi.org).