Othonna retrofracta

Othonna retrofracta is a thick-stemmed, deciduous shrublet reaching 30 cm in height.

The simple leaves are narrow and usually conspicuously lobed once or twice, the lobes also narrow, often opposite and sometimes upturned like arms in surrender. The otherwise entire and rolled under leaf margins may also have few smaller lobes or large teeth. The hairless blades are thinly succulent, blue-green and sometimes purplish low down on the midribs, sunken on the upper surfaces. The leaves usually drop off in summer. Leaf dimensions are up to 3 cm long and 1,5 cm wide.

The species distribution is inland in the Western Cape from Worcester to the Karoo and Little Karoo, northwards to the Northern Cape and southern Namibia and eastwards to the Eastern Cape Karoo. The photo was taken at Minwater near Oudtshoorn.

The habitat is karoid slopes, covered mainly in winter rainfall scrub, renosterveld and succulent Karoo. The species is not considered threatened in habitat early in the twenty first century (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Bond and Goldblatt, 1984; iNaturalist; http://pza.sanbi.org; http://redlist.sanbi.org).