Crassula nudicaulis

This very red stand of Crassula nudicaulis was seen next to the road in the south of Namaqualand during August. The leaves on the few short branches don’t venture far from the main stem, but the inflorescence in picture stands tall like the overly ambitious steeple of a modest church. The small, creamy flowers grow in spaced clusters up the elongated inflorescence. The often much-branched herb reaches up to 30 cm in height.

There are three varieties of C. nudicaulis. All occur in the Northern Cape, while var. herrei is restricted to that province alone. Var. platyphylla and var. nudicaulis are more widely distributed in South Africa, the latter not endemic to the country. There is a possibility that the plant in picture may be C. nudicaulis var. herrei.

The varied habitat of the plant includes loam or clay soils, often in stony places in succulent Karoo or scrub. All three the habitat populations of the varieties are deemed of least concern early in the twenty first century (Smith, et al, 2017; Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; iNaturalist; http://redlist.sanbi.org).